Beauty in the Breakdown
by Alaena Night
Summary: Zero and Yuuki. She is a noble princess, he, a fallen Knight. He is everything she longs to remember. She is everything he hates, but somehow ... somehow, he can't stop loving her. /AU/ ON INDEFINITE HOLD
1. Some Things Stay the Same

/ /** Prologue:** _Some Things Stay the Same / /_

**Disclaimer/Notes: **Let's start with the obvious. I own lots of candy, a fair amount of manga, and a cool little green shirt with clouds on it, but I don't own Vampire Knight. Now that that's out of the way—I'll just say it straight. Umm... **ThisisanAlternateUniversefic!** (_watches people run away screaming_) Yeah... I'm usually a stick-to-the-right-universe kind of girl, but thanks to my sister's suggestion to make all the metaphors in Vampire Knight real, this story was born. If any series is ripe for an Alternate Universe story, I think it's probably Vampire Knight, what with the Knight metaphor and all the other comparisons. There will be no spoilers in this story, of course, but unless you've read the manga up to chapter 38, my reasons for placing some of the characters as I did may be confusing. Another thing I should probably just say right away: **This is a Zero x Yuuki fic. **Please bear with me for a little bit. I promise things will start making sense... eventually.

* * *

_"Yuuki," he said. "Yuuki... Yuuki," like her name was a lifeboat that he desperately gripped onto. His teeth ground furiously into his lips as he tried to keep himself from crying out._

_She spoke quietly, gently, her small, child-like arms wrapped around his slender body. "Shh..." And she didn't say it was okay, because she knew it wasn't. "Shh... I'll be here. I'll be here, so you won't be alone."_

_His body shook with violent, silent sobs, his usually unperturbable demeanor crashing down in front of his eyes, and she held him, tightening her grip until her fingers turned white, but it was okay, because she was sure that if she let go, he'd fall to pieces. She was afraid for him, and broken by his brokenness, so she just continued to hold on. "I'll never go. I'm not going to leave you!" Not like his parents had._

_"Never..." she promised._

_Just three days later, Zero turned thirteen._

_After six days, the Kiryuu family had lost their status, and had been branded as traitors to the crown. __Two weeks later, Yuuki left. Then a month and a half following that, he suffered his first major attack, and Zero knew that he could no longer be who he had once been. Promises made were often left unkept, no matter how strong your resolve to keep them, and even the most familiar of things could be torn from you before you could do anything to stop it._

_Four years passed, and many, many things changed. One thing remained the same, though. When he was in pain, it was her he always called for, even though he was not conscious of the fact that he did so._

_But some things did change._

_Now, when he said her name into the fevered silence, she never answered. Now, she lived among people he hated, and she didn't remember him at all._

_And maybe it was better for her that way._

* * *

/ / **Four Years Later **/ /

It was a fateful day in more ways than one when Yuuki asked to attend defense lessons in the lower guard.

_"I really hate for you to do this, Yuuki," Kaname had said. "It's so dangerous."_

Yuuki raced down the long stone steps and into the large, open space where the lower guard was stationed. She felt strangely relieved, but also discouraged by Kaname's obvious distaste for her idea. She had really hoped that he would support her. But either way, she did not allow her determination to waver.

It had been something Yuuki had put an awful lot of thought into. She wanted to learn how to defend herself. And this, at least, was one thing she wasn't giving up on.

Halfway through a blindingly sunny day down in the lower sections of the towering city, Yuuki sighed, watching as another man fell.

And what would she be willing to bet that Kaname had informed the guard of her impending arrival, and promised to hurt anyone who dared to actually _fight _her seriously? Yuuki stewed a little, then addressed the group of men. "Kaname put you up to this, right?" she asked tiredly. His overprotectiveness was characteristic, and though she understood it, sometimes it was exhausting. The very thing she was trying to avoid, and she'd come across it even down here.

"Of course not!" one of the men rushed to reassure her. "Of course not, Princess."

Her eyes swept the crowd of soldiers, meeting all the eager eyes as her heart sank. Then, suddenly, her gaze stopped. "You!" she said. "Hey, you! I want you to match me."

Her eyes met a matching pair of the most peculiar color, and something inside her lurched, though, for the life of her, she could not explain why. "You!" she repeated.

She got no response. The boy stood, and, without a single word, threaded through the crowd, moonlight-colored hair distinctly visible all the way, and disappeared around the corner of the worn stone guard tower.

"How dare he!" Yuuki said.

"Sorry, Miss," spoke the captain. "That was Yagari. He's very insubordinate. I apologize on his behalf."

Yuuki shook her head. "Please don't," she said. "Thank you for your time. I'm done here for today."

"It was nothing!" the captain bubbled.

Yuuki departed, because she knew that the soldiers would not go back to work until she was gone. Across the courtyard, Yori began walking toward her. A tired smile washed over Yuuki's face. Yori laughed. "How was training today?"

Yuuki's face flitted through a myriad of expressions before stopping on confusion. "Do you think I've gotten any better?"

"It's only been a day, Yuuki..."

Yuuki sighed and kicked up some dust. "This sucks."

Yori nudged Yuuki until the girl acknowledged her existence with a soft smile. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure Hanabusa would be more than happy to train with you."

Yuuki couldn't help the expression of utter horror that spilled onto her face. "Last time I met him in the courtyard, he licked my hand! I mean... eww?"

"Akatsuki, then?"

"Kaname's men," Yuuki sighed. "Did he put you up to this?"

"No," Yori said. "You know how I feel about the nobles, but you were looking for someone to treat you as an equal, weren't you?"

A long pause stretched between them. "So... about that odd boy..."

Yori snorted. "Which _one?_"

"You didn't—?" Yuuki bit her lip. "Never mind. I should probably go tell Kaname that I came out all right. See you later, Yori."

"Of course."

Sometimes it was so easy to forget that Yori was a commoner and a servant. Sometimes it was so easy to forget what Yuuki, herself, was.

The smile that had blossomed in Yori's presence withered a little bit as she walked up the cold steps to her room. She couldn't bring herself to knock on Kaname's door right now. As eager as she was to tell him about her day and about the odd boy who hadn't listened to her, she felt a little bit like an intruder in this exquisite perfection. She fell onto her bed and was asleep within minutes.

Somewhere into the night, she heard her door creak open, and then felt pressure at her bedside. "Yuuki." It was Kaname. He had come. She offered him a sleepy smile of delight, but exhaustion wouldn't let her open her eyes all the way. "Kaname-sama," she said.

"Just Kaname," he told her.

Of course.

"Sorry, Kaname. Tired. Had fun today."

"That's wonderful." His lips touched to her palm, and the place where they made contact tingled. "Good night, Yuuki. Sleep well."

She smiled up into his eyes. "G'Night."

And she was asleep again before the door closed behind him. She dreamt of tingles on her palms, and of Kaname, but somehow, an odd boy crept into the dream somewhere, and with him he brought memories she thought she'd lost a long time ago, of dry laughter by a creek bed, and of trying to get someone to sit still for a portrait she was drawing (badly). She dreamt of lighthearted taunting and a happiness that was simple and yet so wonderful, but when she awoke, the memories were gone, and she felt a profound emptiness, as if she'd slept half her life away and couldn't remember what she'd missed.

She woke to embroidered curtains of the finest cloth, in a bed where she sunk relaxedly, but as the dream taunted the edges of her consciousness with its passing, she felt like she would do anything to fall asleep again, and stay that way forever.

Soon, reality set in, and memories of Kaname's entrance into the room last night stole everything else away. Her cheeks colored pink and a smile lit across her face. She ran out to find him, but when he could finally excuse himself from the company of an elderly noble, she had forgotten what she had been going to say.

"Last night!" she blurted, immediately embarrassing herself.

Kaname smiled. "I didn't mean to wake you. You were sleeping so soundly."

"Umm...!" She mentally slapped herself. She only seemed capable of speaking in squeaky exclamations when it came to this man.

"Yes?"

"I'm going to go train today..."

The only words she got out at a normal volume, and she just _had _to say something like that.

Kaname's smile faded. "I wish you wouldn't."

"I..." Where had her determination gone?

Kaname read her face correctly, and conceded. "I understand that you won't listen to reason. That's fine. Make sure that Yori attends. I would send Seiren, but—"

"No!" The solemn noble scared Yuuki a little bit. "Please. Yori is wonderful."

"Be safe," Kaname said. His words were clipped, almost cold, telling without words how much he wished she'd change her mind, but as much as Yuuki wanted to please him, she wished for just this one, single indulgence.

Yuuki walked away without a word, running as soon as she reached the first corner. "Sorry," she murmured. But once she got to the room, the embarassment had evaporated into barely-veiled excitement. "Yori?"

But one of the servants informed her that Yori was attending to her duties at the moment.

So Yuuki went alone. She went slower than usual on the path down to the guard tower, lost in thought.

Suddenly, a voice echoed to her from somewhere far away.

"Yagari's out again today. What's gotten into that guy? Anyone else and he'd be out of the job. I don't get why the captain puts up with him."

A harsh laugh, like something rough scraping against brick, followed the derisive words, echoing into the near-silence. "I hear it's someone up top. You know..." The voice dropped to a lower tone, and all Yuuki caught was, "... captain ... Royal Guard ... Touga Yagari ... name." The voice raised, and the speaker conspiratorially repeated, "Same name, you see? Something's definitely up with that."

The voices carried to where she stood, and it was only then that Yuuki realized she had stopped at the moment when she heard that boy's name.

"Must've done something real bad to get put down here with us _commoners_, you know."

Yuuki bit her lip and walked on. The path down to the guard station was a dimly lit spiral staircase that branched out into many different alleys and open spaces, which led into the various settlements surrounding the top-most section of the castle. Commoners were at the bottom, and those with noble blood of varying purity lived in the higher floors. The only way those two guards could have gotten up there to gossip was protection duty.

The enclosed staircase threw back the deafening echoes of her footsteps as she hurried down. At last, she reached the bottom, and welcomed the beating glare of the sun. Yuuki turned toward the large protrusion on the stone wall up ahead—the guard station, and its training grounds for soldiers.

She immediately made her way to the captain.

"Is there something you'd like to ask of me, Princess?"

"Yes," Yuuki said quietly, and wondering why she cared, continued, "May I ask where that boy Yagari has gone?"

The captain's face immediately closed up. "That one is...ill today, I'm afraid. But why would you be asking after him?"

He was asking the question that, to an extent, Yuuki was asking herself. In the end, it all came down to the fact that she had been rudely ignored. She wasn't used to that, and it had actually been twistedly refreshing. But if she said it to this subservient soldier, he'd surely think she had lost her mind.

"I'm sorry to have been a bother to you, Captain. I hate to impose, but would it be possible for me to watch the training session today?"

And as always, the captain agreed to her request before his mind could have possibly processed it.

Yuuki just watched today, observing as the soldiers were pitted against each other in an attempt to strengthen their skill in real-world combat. She saw the determination and brutality to their movements, and began to wonder if their sparring with her was just a joke to them—entertaining the Princess for a day.

A particularly violent strike drew blood, spattering the red liquid generously over sun-baked dirt.

The captain was quick to stand beside her. "I'm so sorry, Miss! This happens from time to time. I wish you didn't have to see it. Please... please send Kaname-sama my apologies for allowing you to—"

Yuuki smiled, and she couldn't keep the bitterness out of it. "Of course."

Without anything further, she walked away, taking the stairs two at a time and mumbling to herself all the way. Her steps made unecessarily loud echoes on the stone stairs. She was so caught up in herself that she didn't realize that another person was hurrying _down _the stairs just as quickly, until she bumped into him. She didn't recognize the man, but he was extremely tall, with wild-looking brown hair that completely obscured his right eye. Yuuki tried to see his other eye—this man looked like a noble, but she couldn't tell—but he turned away.

He hurried down beside her and turned right into the first level of the rising city. It was where the guards lived.

She heard the man mutter something like, "Damn! Sooner! Those idiots need to tell me sooner when this happens..." before disappearing.

Confused, Yuuki stood there, staring into the place where the man had disappeared.

Somewhere, she thought she heard an agonized cry.

* * *

Zero was absolutely positive that his heart stopped—and stayed that way—when he saw her face through the crowd of onlookers early that morning in the training grounds.

The first time he saw her after four years, she looked just the same as she always had, and though her vivid hair was just a little longer than she'd worn it as a child, those wide amber eyes had not changed one bit. Her body was still slight; he was sure she wouldn't ever be very tall.

He had the distinct desire to touch her, just to make sure she was really there, that she wasn't something born from his fevered delusions.

As soon as the notion entered his mind, everything started crashing down. She was _different _now. She was one of them. And... even if she hadn't changed, he had. He'd changed too much. Even his last name had been altered to keep him undiscovered. He'd never expected to see her again, never allowed himself to consciously entertain the idea.

He was not fit for her, nor had he ever been.

Yuuki was everything he hated, but somehow ... somehow, he couldn't stop loving her.

And that was the most dangerous part of it all.

* * *

**Notes: **All done with the first chapter! All the weirdness will be explained, I promise! I even made an outline to keep my twisted thoughts in order. I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and can't wait to write Zero and all the other characters much more. (But especially Zero.) **Please Review?** I'd appreciate any thoughts beyond all possible comprehension, since I'm freaking out in about one hundred and seventeen ways right now.


	2. Taking Over Me

/ /** Chapter One:** _Taking Over Me / /_

**Disclaimer/Notes: **Firstly, thank you _**so much **_to everyone who reviewed the first chapter. I'm inexpressably grateful that some people were willing to take the chance with an AU. I promise I'll do my best to not let you down! Thanks as well to my sis, Camerine, who bestowed me with a wonderful late-night sugar-inspired review. On another note, the latest chapters of VK have been so dark—good, but still very heavy with dark revelations and such—so I tried to capture a little bit of the lightheartedness of the early chapters of Vampire Knight in this story. I guess this is my own brand of escapism. And, of course, the incarnation of my odd obsession with Zero x Yuuki. I just had to have her attack him, though. Poor Zero. I'm so mean to him.

* * *

The next day passed, and the one after that, without event. The happenings of two days ago became less and less clear in her mind, until she couldn't remember the face of the man who had rushed down the stairs. She sometimes went to observe the training, but was less welcome than ever, and even though she looked, she never saw who she was looking for.

Kaname noticed her glum mood over breakfast, and sighed, setting his silverware down with a clatter that echoed in the vast ceiling of the dining hall where the table was always set for two. "Yuuki," he said.

And usually that syrupy voice would make her spill all her worries, but she couldn't even pinpoint what she was upset about, so she just bit her lip and stared down at the table.

"Did something happen? Did one of those _men_...?"

Yuuki realized what he was implying. "No! Of course not!" She blushed. "Nothing... just..." Though, really, it _was _about one of those men.

Kaname waited until she'd calmed down, and spoke softly into the silence. "I've spoken to Kain, and he has agreed to help you with your defense lessons."

Yuuki felt her stomach plummet. But she made her voice speak. "Thank you. Tell him I accept."

"Later today," Kaname told her. "If you'd like, I can prepare a room...?"

"The courtyard is fine." Yuuki smiled even though she wasn't sure how her lips could manage it. "Thank you," she said again. "Excuse me. I'll be back in a few hours."

When she got out of the dining hall, she hurried. Pulling her shoes and a cloak on, she ran out of the castle's entrance, into the garden courtyard, and exited onto the staircase in the far corner.

Today, she ran.

She didn't even know what she was looking for. She narrowly skirted a drunk noble and a gaggle of security guards, but she continued on without altering her speed. When she reached the bottom, Yuuki was breathless, heaving for air. She huffed breathlessly past the men who stood by the door, and sought out the captain.

"T—train ..._ training_. Just once more ... I'd like ... to watch it. _Please_."

The captain took in her current state. "Are you all right?"

Yuuki gulped in monstrous lungfuls of breath. "Yes! Training!" She redirected the subject back to where she wanted it.

"I'm sorry, my lady... it's almost over for today."

"C...can I?"

"Observe?"

She nodded.

"I think everyone is about to leave, but if you wish..."

Pampering her. But it was okay, today. Somehow, she thought, if only she could watch, just today—

She ran out into the dusty glare of the sun. Clouds of dirt had been thrown up in the wake of a violent and well-matched fight. Yuuki's eyes searched through the obscurity, trying to make out the faces of the fighters.

She finally saw their faces.

Her whole body felt like a thousand pounds had suddenly been dropped on it.

He was not here. Not there, and not in the surrounding crowds. She felt like she'd lost something and didn't know where to start searching for it. She didn't even bid the captain farewell as she stood and began to walk away. Her footsteps clattered heavily on the stone staircase, climbing slowly higher. She felt oddly hollow in the wake of her shattered hopes, and didn't realize that her eyes had filled with tears until one of them dripped down. Shocked with herself, she swatted them away, gulping in breaths that had nothing to do with running down a staircase.

Kain Akatsuki would be a good teacher. He'd do whatever Kaname asked him to, even if he did it a little absent-mindedly. Kain was a good person. He was...

But her attempt at positive thinking wasn't doing much good. Yuuki stopped on the stairs and sat down, unable to face the thought of climbing all the way to the top, back into that perfect garden and the architecturally flawless buildings surrounding it. She felt like an outsider in this world. She was Yuuki. Just Yuuki. Not Princess or Kuran-sama or My Lady. And she was so, so confused, because she'd been so damn _close _to being happy here, to forgetting those whispers of memory that taunted her when her guard was down, speaking of another life in another place, a wholly imperfect and dirty place, where you couldn't sleep sometimes because of yelling or laughter, where respect was harder to come by even than food, and where she'd never felt happier.

But her mind would not yield those memories, and the more her broken mind held them back, the more she wanted them.

She wanted them so badly.

A sob escaped her lips without her permission, and she suppressed it. She would never let Kaname see this insecurity. He did _everything _he could to make sure she was happy. And she was. Yuuki was happy in this place. But it felt like living in a paradise that was built around a gaping black hole. And Kaname had almost filled that hole in for her. If only... if only...

"That boy. Stupid, stupid boy with stupid eyes." He'd broken the hole open again. "I hate you. I hate you _hate you hate you_," she murmured between her fists.

Now she would stand up and dry her eyes and go to Kain Akatsuki, an upstanding member in this perfect world she was supposed to be a part of.

But instead of going up, she went down, until she found the dank, damp alleyway that led into the lowest level of the city, a circular place open to the sky, even though its light didn't seem to penetrate the cold stone. She didn't realize that someone was following her until the footsteps continued, even when she'd stopped. Though excitement was not the normal thing to feel when you realized that someone was pursuing you in a dark, filthy place, that's what Yuuki felt when she turned around. But she saw black hair and black eyes, and a long sneer that twisted a very large human face into something cold and animalistic.

Adrenaline seared through her veins, but she couldn't make herself move.

"Help!" she screamed. She finally got her legs to move. Yuuki was fit, but her small legs could not give her an advantage over the man's long, beast-like strides.

She ran around a corner and wedged herself into an alleyway, remaining utterly silent until the large man passed. He reminded her so much of a wild animal that for a moment, she was afraid that he'd catch her scent. As soon as he was gone, Yuuki allowed sob-like breaths to escape her chest, and she fell into the street, suddenly unsure which way she'd come from.

"You fool..." said a gruff voice. Yuuki's body jolted with electric shock.

She screamed, but a cold hand clamped over her mouth. Arms grabbed her from behind. Tighter, tighter... She'd been found. She couldn't scream for help—

God, what were those defense lessons for?

Oh, yeah.

Yuuki slammed an elbow into her attacker's abdomen, and began running as soon as she hit the ground. But then she saw something.

Her attacker was on the ground, considerably smaller than the beast who'd chased her earlier. His hair was not black.

And he was on his knees, coughing violently into the grime.

"Ohmigosh I'm so sorry!" she shrieked, running and falling to her knees beside him. He choked breathlessly for several seconds before he glared at her. She continued to apologize dumbly, but it took less than a minute for anger to set in. "You grabbed me from behind!"

He didn't reply. The glare didn't let up, though.

"You scared me!"

He tried and failed to speak several times, but finally found his voice. "_You _shouldn't have been in a place like this." His voice suddenly became infused with poison. "_Princess._" He spoke the word like it was the vilest of curses. "Get back to the top, where you belong. I'm sure everyone is waiting for you."

Several moments passed as he lifted himself to his feet. Yuuki stood, too, her eyes raking over him. "...Are...are you okay? Is there anything I can—"

His expression deadpanned. "You just rammed your elbow into my stomach hard enough to give me internal injuries. What the hell're you talking about?"

"I...!"

This man seemed spectacularly adept at pissing her off. But she remained calm. Because whatever he said, she had been right. His face was disturbingly pale, his eyes feverishly glassy and rimmed with circles of exhaustion. This wasn't something one punch to the stomach could do.

"Where have you been, anyway?" Yuuki demanded. "I haven't seen you in the guard station for days!"

He seemed shocked, but also quite ready to dismiss the fact that if she hadn't _seen _him, then she had to have been _looking _for him. "That is none of your business, Princess. Go back and play house with your noble friends." He was very good at making ordinary words sound like blasphemies. When he said _noble, _it sounded more like a filthy swearword.

"You should learn your place!" She blurted out, speaking from memory the words she'd heard a long time ago. They seemed like an appropriately hurtful response, and before she could stop herself, they had left her lips.

They got the reaction she wanted, but in less than a second, she realized that she hadn't wanted it at all. The boy's lavender eyes filled with horror for a moment, but then he seemed to clamp down on it. "I see you're a proper royal," he said quietly.

"I'm so sorry," Yuuki gasped. "I didn't mean to—"

"I understand you perfectly. The exit is that way and to the left." Everything, even the anger, was disturbingly absent from the youth's pale face, as if a door had slammed shut.

Yuuki spoke again without thinking. He seemed to have that effect on her. "Match me!" she demanded. "I want you to fight me. Now."

The barrier crumbled to reveal disbelief. "I'm sorry, _what? _Have you, perhaps, lost your mind?"

Somehow, she knew instinctively how to push this silver-haired boy's buttons, just like how he seemed to know how to push hers. "Oh well. I understand. You seem to be very ill at the moment, anyway. I'll be going, then." And without a word, she stood, and began to walk away.

"Wait. Hey, you! Stop right there."

Yuuki turned, pasting an expression of innocent curiosity over her face.

"You're on," he said.

* * *

**Notes: **I promise that there will be much more Zero in future chapters! I'm sorry that this one is a little bit shorter than the last. I hope to have the next one up pretty soon. Thanks for taking the time to read! Any thoughts would be sincerely appreciated.


	3. Love and Hate

/ / **Chapter Two: **_Love and Hate_ / /

**Disclaimer/Notes: **This is definitely a wacky chapter. (In which Zero and Yuuki sword-fight, Yuuki meets a deranged horse, and Zero sees more of Yuuki than he expected, leaving Yuuki to depart, angry and shoeless.) I had a lot of fun writing it, so I hope it's a fun read. I wrote it with the early volumes of VK in mind, because I love the way that Yuuki and Zero argue.

* * *

Yuuki had never been very good at taking well-intentioned advice to heart. In fact, she was an expert at getting herself into trouble, as demonstrated yet again by the crazy stunt she was about to pull.

"Last chance to decide this is stupid," the silver-haired boy offered absent-mindedly.

"What about you?" Yuuki asked.

"I already know it's stupid."

"...Oh."

"Ready?"

Yuuki nodded, tightening her grip on the training sword. She was already questioning her reasons for doing this, but she didn't see any way to back out after having just made the proposal herself.

The boy sighed. "Okay, then. On three."

Silence reigned in the empty training yard.

"One."

Metal clattered dully against the dusty, rock-strewn ground as Yuuki adjusted it in her hand, allowing the blade to scrape the stones by her feet.

"Two."

_He had actually been quite right. This was spectacularly stupid._

"Three..."

However, she refused to sit in that castle and do nothing.

"Go!"

He moved faster than she'd ever seen while watching the soldiers train together. It took all of her willpower to raise the sword in time to keep herself from getting stabbed. Before her arms could register the intense ache caused by the force of his hit, he withdrew, and readied himself to strike again.

She wasted a portion of a precious second to glance at his face. His expression was a mix of too many emotions to comprehend. She lifted the sword in time to block his second attack, but there was no way she'd ever be able to fight back. Even though she could somehow tell that these strikes were not meant to harm her, it felt like this was very personal to him. She had the sudden urge to apologize.

She quenched it in time to barely block a third strike.

"_Yagariii!_" a voice filled with shock and rage resounded through the empty space of the training grounds, making Yuuki jump. The captain had exited the station, and was pacing toward the two of them. Her mind was still very much in battle mode, and before Yuuki could think it over, she took advantage of the silver-haired boy's second-long pause to swing. It was weak, but her opponent had no time to block it. He saw the swinging blade a second before it made contact with him, and turned away almost fast enough to miss it, but not quite. The blade, dull though it was, cut through his thin shirt like an outstretched hand through water, and she felt the blade meet yielding flesh.

She staggered, dropping the weapon quickly, and threw it as far away from herself as she could get it. Blood that had dripped from the blade spattered warmly onto her shirtsleeve.

"Zero Yagari!" the captain raged, stomping ever closer, as if nothing had just happened. "I will not put up with this! How dare you do something so disgustingly insubordinate behind my back? How _dare _you? Kaname-sama will know that it was only you who participated in this outrage. I order you to apologize to the Princess, now!"

Zero.

Zero.

That was his name.

It struck a chord in her memory, but his full name sounded all wrong when she said it in her mind.

"Apologize to her! And I will have you know that you will not get away from this lightly!"

"Yes, he will," Yuuki said quietly.

The captain stared at her as if she had sprouted broccoli on her forehead.

"I'm not injured at all. Beside that, I'm the one who made him fight me. I would like to make it clear that he will not receive punishment for this. If I hear something to the contrary—" _Hmm... what would a big bad noble say in this situation? _Yuuki tried to think of a proper ending to her threat. "There will ... be ... umm—consequences," she finished feebly.

Even though his arms were rather busy clutching at the bleeding wound on his side, Zero laughed. The sound was shocking, coming from his lips, and it made her want to laugh, too. She might have, if she hadn't realized that this laughter was at her expense.

"I need to change." This time her comments were directed at him. "I don't think that Kaname would be very... um... if I came home with blood on me."

Zero's smile immediately vanished. "And of course you wouldn't want to upset _Kuran._"

"It's nothing like—!" Yuuki bit her tongue. "I'm going to need clothes to change into," she grumbled.

"We don't have an abundance of noble's clothes. I hope that wearing regular clothes won't damage your dignity too badly."

Realizing that the captain was still there, Yuuki turned abruptly, taking out her impatience on him. "Get out of here!" she said.

The captain scrambled, and Yuuki spun on Zero to find him grinning. "First," she started, "you need to shut up. Second, I'll have you know that I'm not like those other people! I wasn't always living in this castle!"

Something flashed across Zero's face. "Really?" he said softly.

Yuuki's anger deflated. "Yeah," she said. "But... I don't remember much anymore."

It seemed like Zero was going to say more, but he staggered, so that Yuuki impulsively reached out a hand to steady him. He stepped away from her. "I'll get those clothes for you," he said gruffly. "There's no privacy inside, so just go around to the stables." He pointed to the far end of the dusty training field. "At least you'll have a door. I'll be there in a minute."

"What about a doctor?" Yuuki asked frankly, eyeing the gash on his side with concern.

"You think they're easy to find down here? I'll grab something to bind it with. You go change." He seemed vaguely irritated, and Yuuki marveled at how quickly his mood could change. Or maybe he was just in a perpetual state of irritation. She walked off to the stables, found an empty stall, and waited, taking off her shoes and testing her toes on the newly strewn hay.

She heard a snort of breath, and lifted her small body to view the next stall, and was surprised to meet with a very large pair of eyes. When her shock faded, she realized that the eyes were connected to a horse. A white one. It looked irritated, too, and snorted in her face to make sure she knew that she wasn't welcome. When she continued to stare, the animal roughly kicked the wall, knocking her to the ground.

"I see you've met Lily," echoed an amused voice. Zero was walking toward her with a large white shirt flung over his shoulder. He opened the stable door and handed it to her.

"Stay," she said. "I'll wrap that wound for you."

He started to argue.

"It's the least I can do. Please."

Grumpily, he closed the door, leaning against it and looking off to the side. Yuuki quickly took off her own shirt, and muttering a firm order of, "Don't you dare look!" she pulled the huge white shirt over her head. The hole for the head went halfway across her shoulders, and the sleeves, which were supposed to be short, draped nearly to her wrists. The cloth was coarse and old. It smelled like work.

"You look like you're drowning in it," Zero observed.

Yuuki imagined that was a kind way to put it. She jerked her head toward the next stable and said curiously, "Can anyone actually ride that demon?"

"I do," he said.

She was sure she heard him wrong. But then it made a funny sort of sense. "I'll bet you both get along, with your hair-trigger tempers and all."

"Very amusing," he said. But then his expression faded, and he put a hand over his face. "Oh," he said. "Damn." Before Yuuki could do anything, he dizzily staggered onto one knee, and it was only then that she realized his true reason for leaning against the stable door. "Ow," he added as an afterthought.

"Oh _crap_ I'm really sorry..." she said, quickly kneeling beside him. "Umm... bandages?" She was disturbed by his sudden paleness, and she regretted asking him to match her. But then, she had never been praised for her intuition, and if she ever had, she'd received just as many comments on her impulsiveness. In fact, her _most_ commented-on characteristic was her odd ability to get into trouble and do stupid things.

Zero's breathing was labored as he gestured to a small roll that he'd dropped onto the hay. Yuuki grabbed it, tearing off a very small piece and folding it against the wound. It wasn't actually very deep; more of a superficial slice. She then took a much longer piece and wrapped it all the way around, tying it, then letting his torn shirt fall over it once more.

She leaned back onto the hay, looking at him. "You don't look very good," she said. "I'm reallysorry. I knew I shouldn't have asked you what I did, but... I... was actually sort of mad that you hadn't been at the training grounds for the last few days. I'm _really_—"

Seeing her genuine distress, Zero seemed to flail for something to say. "Come on," he finally replied. "I'm absolutely fine. It's just that I didn't get any sleep last night. This is only a little cut, and it'll heal up good as new in a few days."

Slightly encouraged, Yuuki nodded. Sheepishly, she glanced down, suddenly aware that the huge neck of the shirt had slid down much lower than she would've liked.

Following her eyes, Zero realized it, too. With a rather nervous sound, he grabbed the cloth and pulled it so that the hole was distributed instead over her shoulders and back. He swore to himself. "Be more careful," he ordered, sounding irritated. "You keep being an idiot and someone is going to grab you on your way back up. Next time, come with someone. It's thoughtless and absolutely _stupid_ to come by yourself."

"Kaname said that, too," Yuuki said. "Except he left out the _idiot_ and _stupid_ part."

Zero flinched at Kaname's name. "Then why don't you go on back to him? I'm sure he's positively panicking since you've been gone from his sight. You must be dying to get back up there."

Yuuki straightened. "Then I will!" she huffed. "No gratitude..." She murmured, and grabbed her shirt, but Zero took it from her.

"I'll wash it and have it returned," he said.

"_Thanks_." But there was very little gratitude in her voice. She threw open the door and stomped out across the dusty ground. She was halfway up the very long staircase before she felt any regret. Even then, it was only a little bit, and only for hurting him. She felt much more regret when she realized that she'd left her shoes down there. Her anger had encompassed her so completely that she hadn't noticed when she had stomped across the hot, dusty ground, but on the stairs now, ice cold dampness had already numbed her toes.

When she finally reached the top, she was grumpy and very much the worse for wear. Her sensitive skin was unused to the coarse cloth, and her skin itched. Add to that the fact that her toes were frozen solid, and you had Yuuki in one very bad mood.

Unfortunately, Kain was waiting exactly where Kaname had said he would be. As soon as Yuuki threw open the door to the courtyard, Kain saw her.

Characteristically, he didn't say anything about her state. He must have been used to trying to appease Aidou, because he approached the subject with caution. "Would you like to change and clean up before we start?"

"Yes," Yuuki hissed. She rushed inside, fuming, and got into the largest bath in the castle without bothering to grab a change of clothes. Her mostly-okay mood had soured on the way up. The cold, long staircase had given her plenty of time to stew over the manic mess that had been her day. First, she had been chased and nearly killed in the dampest, dirtiest, and stinkiest section of the towering city. Then she'd met with someone she'd been very much looking forward to meeting, only to elbow-butt him and sword fight him, slashing him open in the process. And he'd called her a stupid idiot and made fun of Kaname and told her that she was stuck up—

Yeah, that part bothered her.

_He _was the one that was stuck up! He was... was... _infuriating! _He was kind one moment, irritated the next, and incomprehensibly pensive the rest of the time. Of course, Yuuki's attitude towards him had been just as varied. She couldn't seem to get a handle on what she thought of him. And besides that, what was _wrong _with him? A night of sleeplessness couldn't do that to a person. She surely hadn't made it any better. Stupid.

Yuuki filled the tub until the water almost spilled over, then buried herself under the bubbles. The warmth seeped into her body, helping to clear her thoughts, organizing her jumbled feelings. Soaking under the water, she was surprised to realize that she was eager to go back to the guard station tomorrow, and even more surprised to find, specifically, that she was eager to see _him_.

"Stupid, hotheaded... silly, mood-swinging _grump_..." she groused into the bubbly water. "I could find him and kick him one—"

"Yuuki?" Kaname's velvet voice came through the door. She jumped. "I see that you're not attending lessons with Kain. Would you care to explain why?"

Yuuki muffled a shriek. _Oh, crap! This was it._ She didn't want to. But how could she tell Kaname that she'd changed her mind all of a sudden?

"Ummmm...!"

He sighed. The sound was long and drawn out, and somehow quite royal-sounding. "You can explain later, if you wish."

Yuuki jumped out of the tub and pulled her old clothes on, resolving to change as soon as she could get back to her room. Completely forgetting that Kaname was still outside of the door, she exited.

"Yuuki..." he said. His voice demanded attention. He directed her attention to her bare feet and large white shirt. "Where were you just now?"

_Kain hadn't told Kaname that she had exited into the courtyard?_

Yuuki felt a surge of respect for the odd, absent-minded boy. "I... was..." Kaname would be able to tell if she was lying. "Going down there one last time," she finished quickly. "My shirt got dirty and so a kind boy—" yeah... _sure_; kind, her ass "—loaned me a shirt."

"One last time?" And of course he zeroed in on the one little half-truth.

"Umm... I need to change..." Yuuki said.

Kaname let her go without saying anything more. He watched her until she disappeared around the corner, then turned away, stiff. He looked into the steamy bathroom, where the floor was doused carelessly with water, the tub still mostly full. He allowed himself a slight smile at her adorable eccentricities.

Later, he would speak to her again, once she'd had time to sort out her thoughts and get some rest, and he would get answers. The more Yuuki grew, the farther she seemed to drift from him. Worry encompassed Kaname as he desperately hoped that she wasn't doing what she did best and getting herself into trouble.

* * *

"Zero."

He knew the voice even before he opened his door. What confused him was why this person would be visiting. "Yagari," he said roughly. His visits never boded well.

"I narrowly avoided the little girl on my way down. I hid into an alley, so I don't think she saw me."

"Yuuki, you mean?"

"Yeah... she was really pissed. And I noticed she was wearing one of my shirts. Care to tell me why?"

Zero grunted. "No. Care to tell me why you came?"

Yagari gave a wry half-smile and blew out a cloud of smoke. "Can't I just visit to say hello?"

"Not really."

"And this is the thanks I get for letting you borrow my name to keep your sorry butt out of jail." Realizing that Zero wasn't going to entertain his attempts at small talk, Touga Yagari, current General of the Royal Guard, launched straight into it. "I came because I had something to tell you, but... what is that wound?"

Zero gestured vaguely to the dried-blood-covered tear in the shirt he hadn't bothered to change. "This?"

"What else?" Yagari asked testily.

"Got it while sparring."

Yagari buried his face in his hands and lit another cigarette as a means of stress release. "Why were you out of your house in the first place? How the hell did you get into a sparring match?"

"I went out to grab some things, then I heard someone scream. She frickin' elbowed me." He paused. "Then she stabbed me," he added as an afterthought. His smile was dryly amused.

"Don't you know that your condition is very fragile at the moment? If that wound gets infected, it might cause a relapse, Zero! If you keep doing stuff like this, I won't be able to hide your illness forever. They _kill _people like you."

Zero ignored the man. "What else did you come to tell me?"

"There's a blood trade going on." Again, Yagari got straight to the point.

"_What?"_ Zero demanded.

Yagari nodded solemnly. "We don't know which one, but one of the nobles is selling their blood. The unique properties of their blood are perfect for drugs."

Oh, yes. Zero knew all about the unique properties of noble blood.

"Do you get what I'm saying? They're dilluting it and adding herbs, and making a _very_ lethal drug out of that stuff." Yagari clenched his teeth. "It's not having the same effect that the blood sickness does, since the blood is heavily dilluted with water and herbs, but it's becoming very dangerous. This news will probably reach the lower guard's captain soon enough, but I thought you should know about it first, and keep an eye out."

Zero was silent for a long time, digesting what his old teacher had just told him. "Thanks," he said softly.

"Call me if things get worse, Zero," Yagari said. "I owe your parents a lot. I owe _you_ a lot. Stay safe."

Zero nodded speechlessly as Yagari exited.

"And for God's sake don't do anything stupid!" Yagari begged.

But Zero didn't bother to process that last part. He was already thinking about Yuuki again, and how he'd be able to see her.

Even though he knew he shouldn't... even though, as much as he hated it, she'd be safer with that horrible _Kuran, _he couldn't help thinking about her.

She still sent him off in a million different directions every time he looked at her.

* * *

**Notes: **All done with this chapter! I really love writing Yuuki and Zero's bickering. I didn't realize how much I missed it until chapters 36, 37, and 38, where all the dark revelations totally swamped me. I miss Yuuki's stubborn silliness and Zero's general irritation and occasional sweetness... (_sigh_) Ah, well. **Please Review?**


	4. Falling Inside the Black

/ / **Chapter Three: **_Falling Inside the Black _/ /

**Disclaimer/Notes: **I should stop picking on poor Zero. But I just can't. It's a sign of how much I love him, I promise. And and... you guys are awesome. I cannot express how grateful I am for how kind everyone has been to me so far! I'm really glad I was able to get over an evil bout of writer's block and a whole bunch of absolute terror to write and read in the Vampire Knight category on this site. Anyway, before I get mushy, **I love the anime. **I have watched and rewatched the first episode, just to see all my favorite characters _moving._ I fell in love with Zero all over again. Also, the title of this chapter is inspired by Skillet's song of the same name, which fits Zero shockingly well.

* * *

Thousands of feet from safe ground, Yuuki sat.

The fragrance of flowers carried heavily on the cold night wind as she rested on the wall, threading her legs through the slats in the intricately wrought fence that saved unwary observers from falling. Yuuki stared at the world that stretched out before her, from the bottom of the towering city to the beautiful woods that extended beyond it, all bathed in surreal blue moonlight. Yuuki looked to the open base of the city, easily spotting the guard tower. And it reminded her of everything that had happened earlier.

"Zero..."

It was an odd name. She'd never come across it before. She said it softly to herself as she sat, swinging her legs against this masterfully created fence—these prison bars that confined her in this excruciatingly perfect, beautiful cage.

"Zero."

She wondered if she could leave, if she could visit him today, when the morning came. She couldn't say why, but even sitting in this cage today, she felt remarkably happy. As long as he was here in this city, she couldn't see any reason to leave. Sliding off of the wall and extricating her legs from the fence, Yuuki walked off to the promise of sleep.

* * *

Not for the first time, Zero woke up screaming.

As soon as he was conscious, he immediately clamped down on the sound, ashamed for being afraid of dreams. They played over and over in his head, even now, when he was awake—so intensely real that he could almost feel the gaze of cruel eyes, surrounded with an unnaturally bright ring of color. He sat up, ignoring the loud creaks of the bed and the cold floor as he put his feet down onto it. Dizziness slammed black shutters down on his vision, and he waited for everything to clear before he tried to stand.

The sun would not show itself yet for several hours, but Zero already knew that he would not be getting any more sleep tonight. He stood gingerly, giving care to the wound on his side. The makeshift bandages were a real mess. He lit a lamp and turned its flame down as low as it would go, then rummaged around in his bathroom for the roll of bandages he kept there. As inexplicably hesitant as he was to put much time into caring for himself, Yagari was right. He had to take care of himself if he didn't want to be found out. The occasional unexplained absences were bad enough already.

He peeled off the blood-soiled bandages, disappointed and slightly worried that the small wound hadn't closed yet. He washed it a little, still too sleepy to bother with much, and then re-wrapped it.

Sighing, he fell back into bed, completely awake, and stared at the ceiling, wondering if Yuuki was sleeping now. He hoped her dreams were good ones.

Just as he had thought, sleep didn't come. The sun rose and shone through his window with an obnoxiously painful glare, and he sighed, getting dressed. The captain would not tolerate another missed day of work. Any more absences wouldn't do anything to help his colleagues' hate and mistrust of him, anyway.

Today would be another long day.

* * *

Having gone to bed after midnight, Yuuki woke late, still feeling exhausted. She stifled a yawn as she slipped her body into a small lavender dress that had been a gift to her ages ago.

Kaname had told her that, as bothersome as it was, she needed to appear calm and in control in front of people. He made sure to mention that she didn't have to be either; she just had to look that way. He had also told her that she shouldn't change anything about herself, which had made her smile for three hours straight at the time. She smiled a little into the mirror, now, until she realized that she'd just put on two different shoes. The yawn finally escaped, and Yuuki groaned, finding the correct shoes and slipping them on.

She, fortunately, did not have many official duties to attend to, since Kaname took care of most of those, but she was pretty sure that she was supposed to have breakfast with the noble families of the Royal Council this morning, to promote peace and cooperation, or some such nonsense.

The two largest council-supporting families, the Shikis and the Ichijous, were already sitting when she arrived. The Hanabusa family was there, too, which didn't surprise Yuuki; Aidou loved food, and his father took every chance he could to showcase the Hanabusa's only daughter, who adored Kaname.

Yuuki bowed and apologized for arriving late, then sat next to Kaname. "You look beautiful," he murmured into her ear. Yuuki managed a sleepy smile.

"Sorry I was late. I slept in."

"It's okay," he said, and then deftly responded to a joke that Aidou's dad had told. Aidou was busy burying his face in his hands—apparently with shame, probably because of the way his sister kept blushing and batting her eyes in Kaname's direction—which Yuuki was actually quite thankful for, since he had no time to tease her.

Takuma Ichijou was very energetic. He talked a lot and ate quite a bit as well, the exact opposite of his grandfather, who spoke almost nothing, sitting stiffly in his chair with eyes that radiated poison, and ate sparingly.

Next to Takuma, Shiki sat alone with his mother. His mother was rumored to be a little off in the head, but she smiled politely enough as she ate, talking in a soft, musical voice to her son. Shiki gave very slight smiles to her, and only her, when called for, but he mostly looked bored. Takuma chatted non-stop in his other ear, something about the books he'd been reading.

Aidou finally livened up at the end of the meal, just long enough to taunt Yuuki a little. "Very nice. Dressing up for someone?" he asked.

She stared blankly, and blinked. "Ummm..." _Was she?_

"I don't think the dead-tired look is in anymore, though," Aidou said with mock-regret.

Kaname said polite farewells to all the guests, kissing the hands of the only two women, with varying response. Aidou's sister melted, squeaked, and staggered away, giggling, while Shiki's mother just gave an absent smile, as if she was somewhere else in her mind. Kaname gave a very slight bow to Ichijou's grandfather, while the elderly man bowed much more deeply.

Once everyone had left, Kaname turned to Yuuki. "So, then, what is it?"

She stared blankly. She couldn't remember having asked him anything.

"You were completely absent-minded this whole time," he explained. "Clearly, there is something on your mind. I also would like you to explain why you came home shoeless and in different clothes last night."

Yuuki's heart pounded against her chest. "Umm... I... already said..."

"I'd like to hear the whole story. You have seemed to be very worried, lately, Yuuki. I'm concerned for you."

Yuuki blushed and fidgeted, taking one of the plush seats at the table and trying to think of something to say. She was such a horrible liar. "Umm.. my other shirt had...blood...on it."

Kaname made no outward reaction, but Yuuki could see the way he stiffened in his chair.

This was not going well. "It wasn't mine!" she rushed to say. "I was... down at the guard station, and I accidentally—" stabbed someone "—made a boy trip, and he got cut badly, and some of the blood got on my shirt, so he offered to wash it, and..."

Wow, this was the worst lie she'd told in three years, the last having been that the reason her best dress was covered in mud was because the dog had taken off with it. That one might have passed if not for the fact that there were no dogs in this section of the towering city.

Kaname sighed deeply. "I have some business to attend to today. I'm going to ask Aidou and Kain to accompany you today, to make sure you don't wander. I don't want to put you in any danger."

"But ... My shirt...!"

"We will talk about this later, Yuuki. I'm sorry."

Kaname stood smoothly and began walking, his footsteps clattering against the floor. He stopped right before exiting, and said quietly, "I wouldn't have been angry at you for telling the truth, you know. I would never be angry at you, Yuuki."

The door sounded unbearably loud, and the hurt in Kaname's tone left Yuuki feeling utterly wretched. Servants came to clean up the plates and silverware, and Yuuki departed, feeling even more horrible for the fact that she was already thinking of ways to get past Aidou and Kain.

She ran down to the servant's quarters, and knocked on a familiar door. "Yori!" she said desperately. The door opened to reveal the brown-blonde girl's sleep-tousled head.

"Come on in, Yuuki."

"Yori," Yuuki said desperately as soon as she was inside. "Please, can you distract Aidou and Kain for a while? I'm begging you."

Yori sighed, smiling. "May I ask why?"

"Umm..." Yuuki looked around, wondering how much she should tell her friend.

Yori waited.

"Well, it's a guy," Yuuki said. Yori's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Not like that!" Yuuki blushed furiously. "It's just that I met him yesterday, and ... he's ... _different_. Like you," Yuuki said.

"Poor boy," Yori said. "I pity anyone who's like me."

"You know what I mean," Yuuki huffed exasperatedly. "He doesn't treat me like a glass statue or something. Which is sort of annoying, because he doesn't even really treat me like a _girl_, but I'm worried about him, too. Not to mention he has my shirt and shoes."

Yori couldn't help poking Yuuki just a little bit more. "Wow! What did you two _do?_"

Yuuki abruptly turned pink. "Yo—Yori!"

Yori smiled. "Don't worry about it. I'll distract Hanabusa and Akatsuki for you. They'll probably look for you in your room, right?"

"Yeah. Just tell them that they can't come in. I dunno, say I'm changing, or that breakfast didn't agree with me."

Yori nodded. "Let me get dressed, then..."

* * *

Zero tried to ignore the inevitable. He spent most of the day immobile, which he was hugely thankful for, but when his shift changed, he got dragged into some sort of training exercise that the men were putting together.

It was sad but true that there couldn't possibly be peace with so many battle-happy men running around. Constant matches were orchestrated under the guise of combat training. The captain let them go on because of the latter reason, and also because he had learned that if the men didn't get their energy out, fights would start while the men were on duty.

"Yagari!" one of the men called. "Come on, you're in."

And he still couldn't get used to being called by his idiot teacher's last name. It was disgraceful. "Can't today," Zero said. "I'm on break."

The men weren't having it. "Gotta participate. Everyone not on duty's gotta," one man said smugly. Zero was one of their favorite targets, since he'd never lost a match yet. They seemed to think that they could beat him if they fought him enough.

"Participate?" Zero growled. "Sure that word isn't too big for you?"

The words were out of his mouth before he could think twice about the wisdom of saying them.

The man stepped forward threateningly. He was taller than Zero, and much older, too. That wouldn't have bothered Zero too much, even on a bad day, but the particularly bothersome part was that he had four other men with him.

"You cocky little brat, saying that to me!" The man's voice was a deep growl. "You're a kid; you have absolutely _no idea _what you're talking about."

"I don't?" Zero asked coolly. Another mistake. Maybe he should just tape his mouth shut. He was dead on his feet from lack of sleep, and the sun's merciless bright light was painful to his tired eyes. His temper had been worn down cruelly by the constant talking of the man he'd been partnered up with for guard duty today. At this point, he had very little reign on his cruel tongue.

The man muttered something, but all Zero caught of it was, "—teach this brat a lesson?"

_Oh, great. Lessons. Love those. _Zero managed to keep from saying that out loud, but it probably wouldn't make much difference if he had.

He knew that he needed to get out of here, now. His eyes scanned everything around him in a single second, seeking an escape route. He shouldn't have come, it had been so stupid to come today. Yagari would kill him for this.

Right up ahead, there was an open space, and one of several doors that led into the lowest section of the city. If he could get in there...

He didn't allow himself time to think. He just ran.

When he reached the door, he wrenched it open and was almost inside when someone jerked him back. "Not so fast."

So there had been six of them. Zero swore silently as he was hauled back. He was not in the mood to take these guys on. The man who had such a firm hold on the back of Zero's shirt was extremely large. He towered over Zero by at least a foot.

Why did all hell have to turn against him _today?_

But it would have been some other day, if not today. The large man didn't let go of Zero as the other men began to surround him.

Zero spoke quickly, defusing whatever was about to happen by deftly returning everyone's minds back to the original subject. He looked the first man in the eye, issuing a challenge without words. "So you want to take me on? Sure you can do it?"

In saying that, at the very least, he ensured that he would only have to match that one person. The other man's pride would be trashed now if it was anything more than a one-on-one match.

"You think I can't?"

One of the others distributed the training swords, and they stepped onto the grounds. More of the men had come out, and were watching. Zero concentrated on staying upright and maintaining his grip on the weapon.

"Start!" someone called, and the first man went immediately and brutally into action, swinging the blade with unnecessary force and no caution, yet Zero had to put in serious effort to block it. It made him sick to realize that, on any other day, this man would have already been down. As he continued to just barely evade the man's forceful swings, the people around him started to murmur. He didn't bother to listen in on it.

The temperature outside was only rising, and standing out in the thick of it was not doing any good for him. _Crap, crap, crap... Touga's gonna kill me. If this guy doesn't, that guy definitely will._

Zero's opponent swung the sword with one hand this time, using his free fist while Zero blocked the blade. His punch caught Zero right under the ribs, grinding the tender flesh around the wound on his side. Before Zero could regain his balance, the man wrapped a foot around Zero's ankle, jerking hard and throwing him off balance. Groaning, Zero slammed hard onto the sun-baked dirt. The man looked over him triumphantly, sickly pleased. Even though Zero couldn't see it, he felt the warmth of blood spreading from the reopened wound. The sun was right up above him, so he found it odd that black, staticky clouds seemed to be swimming across it.

"—Bleeding. He was already injured," someone said.

"So?" laughed another one.

Zero blinked away the blackness in his eyes, very annoyed at the disgusting chuckles coming from that worthless man's mouth. His fingers were still entwined slightly around his weapon—it had been another one of the man's many mistakes to not kick it away—so Zero summoned his determination and gripped the blade, moving so quickly that the temporary winner did not have any time to react.

He swung the dull edge of the sword into the back of the man's legs, throwing him off balance, and then jumped lithely to his feet, shoving his outstretched forearm into the man's throat, and falling with him until they were both on the ground, except the one man was gasping and sputtering, and Zero was not. He pressed his arm harder into his opponent's neck, completely cutting off his air supply. Anger burned in his veins like fire.

Zero waited until the man's expression turned frantic and his face flushed purple until he could make himself let go. He glared down at the man. "Don't mess with me," he spat out, trying to keep the breathlessness out of his voice.

Then he walked away, leaving his defeated opponent hacking helplessly on the ground.

He hurried to the door in the stone wall, forcing it open and stumbling through. His head pounded violently, and he had to use everything he had just to keep walking. And yet it still seemed so far to his house.

"Thought you could get away, Yagari?" spoke a voice from somewhere behind him. He heard more than one pair of footsteps, but his weak attempt to turn around just left him on his knees, back against the wall.

"We thought a snot-nosed brat like you maybe needed a lesson in respect." He recognized this voice as the man he had just beaten. He was vaguely satisfied to hear that the man's voice was hoarse.

He gave them a soft, self-deprecating laugh.

"Do your worst."

_I'm already in hell._

* * *

Yuuki winked at Yori as she escaped around the corner just in time to see Aidou and Kain coming around the opposite side of the hall. Yori stopped them. "Oh, you'd better not go in there!" Yori cautioned.

Yuuki couldn't help watching.

"She's changing," Yori said. "_And _she said that breakfast didn't agree with her."

_She just had to rub it in..._

Yuuki stifled a laugh, and ran around the corner, racing through the courtyard. Her hand was on the door when she heard a soft voice.

"Yuuki."

She spun to face the speaker, and the sunny beauty of the day faded to gray. "Kaname," she whispered. _I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry._

"Yuuki, will you go?" he asked. "Why are you doing this?"

_Because he reminds me of my past. Because he's odd and stupid and hot-headed. Because... _She didn't actually know. "I'm so sorry," she said. "Please. _Please_, Kaname."

"Please don't."

Damn it! She could not say no! She could not walk away from him. It hurt. Yuuki didn't realize that her eyes had filled with tears, but Kaname did, and he was right beside her. He wiped one away. "Go if you must," he said. His voice was suddenly, frighteningly cold. "But if you don't come back safely, you must understand that I will not allow this person to live."

Yuuki's heart froze. She muttered one last apology before leaving through the door.

_Zero._

She took the steps two at a time, running to the captain as soon as she was at the bottom. He didn't have any news for her, but another man heard, and told her that Zero had participated in a battle, nearly lost, and immediately left.

The warmth suddenly seemed to disappear from the air, like it had all been vacuumed away in a single moment. So she ran. She ran after him.

At first, all she saw when she moved through the door was darkness. It took her eyes a while to adjust to the grimy dim lighting. Instinctively, she raced off in the direction she had run yesterday, hoping that this had truly been the direction he'd taken.

It seemed like forever until she finally found him.

Them.

Four men were lying around him. She saw blood, and not all of it was Zero's.

She was suddenly shaking, her mind flashing back to some scene a long time ago that she could not remember, and she said, "Are they dead?" But against common sense, she walked up to him. "Are you all right, Zero? What—"

"Stay back!" he cried. "Don't look. Yuuki ... please ... don't look."

He stood to his feet, and there was something different about the way he moved, something painful but lithe—predatory. His fingers were clenched against his head, twining through his silver hair, and through gasps for breath, he whispered brokenly...

"Run, Yuuki. Please... please... run."

* * *

**Notes: **Umm... I'm really sorry! I hope to have the next chapter up soon. There was much more Zero POV in this chapter, so I had a lot of fun writing him. I definitely plan to write more of the side characters later, but I had to comfort myself with a little bit of the Ichijou and Shiki families. I love Ichijou and Shiki to death, so I really hope to be able to show a lot more of them, as well as the other characters, in future chapters. **Please Review?** Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated.


	5. Into the Labyrinth

/ / **Chapter Four: **_Into the Labyrinth / /_

**Disclaimer/Notes: **So things finally get explained in this chapter. I'm really nervous. (gulps) No vampires, I'm afraid, but I'm still trying to keep the original manga's supernatural feel. I hope it's all right.

* * *

_"Run, Yuuki. Please... please... run."_

Why was it that when someone said something like that, the very last thing you wanted to do was run? Yuuki stood there, taking one shaking step forward.

"Damn it, I'm not kidding! Get _out _of here!"

But she was not moving. She couldn't move. Perhaps this was what Kaname meant when he said she had no sense of danger. Maybe her mind was broken. Maybe any other, normal person would have raced, screaming, from this place.

Zero nearly fell against the wall beside him, his features twisted with agony.

How could she not go to him? How could she just stand here?

"Yuuki..." he whispered, words muffled. "Please..." No, not muffled; shattered. Completely, pitifully broken. Begging. "Go."

She shook her head. "I'm so sorry," she said. "But I can't."

His breathing was labored, pained. Whatever words he had been about to say were cut off as he staggered. Then he spoke. "I don't ... want you to see me like this. I don't want to hurt you."

_I don't want you to hurt yourself, _she thought.

Something about every time she had seen him had subtly hinted at a forced carefulness for others at the cost of himself. It hurt her to see it.

"Zero," she said. _I can't leave you while you're hurting. I can't just walk away and pretend everything is all right._

"Yu—" His voice was cut off by a stifled cry, and the hands against his head seemed to clench impossibly tight. An agonized scream tore from his lips, all the more wrenching for his broken attempt to stifle it, and he dropped heavily to his knees, curling forward.

"Zero! What's wrong?" She ran to him.

"Stop—!" And before she knew it, pain rocked through her body, and it took several moments to realize that she was being pressed up against the damp stone wall. Yuuki let out an involuntary cry of surprise, wincing as she felt the rough brick tear the skin of her bare legs.

She tried to look at Zero, but he wasn't looking up at all. After several moments, his grip loosened, and he let her fall. He looked at the shock in her eyes, stumbling back as if horrified of what he had just done. "I'm sorry," he said softly. "Please...go."

Tears leaked from her eyes without permission. "Tell me what's happening," she pleaded. "I'm scared for you."

He didn't seem to be listening. "Now. Go _now._"

"But—"

"You _idiot!_" This voice wasn't Zero's. "Don't you listen to anyone? Get the hell down!"

She was grabbed from behind, and thrown to the ground. Looking up quickly, she recognized the intruder as the man she'd seen running down the stairs yesterday. A strip of leather almost completely obscured the right side of his face.

"Zero?" the rough voice demanded.

For a long moment, there was no reply, then, softly; "You're noisy, Yagari."

"Good," Yagari said, though Yuuki could not fathom what was good about this situation.

"Do it," Zero said.

"Are you sure?"

Zero gave a barely perceptible nod.

"What's going on..." Yuuki said. She was still sitting on the ground, trying to work through the confusion in her mind.

Yagari clapped a reassuring hand on top of Yuuki's mussed hair, but his voice sounded like a warning. "I'll explain later. Don't do _anything._"

"Yagari, _now,_ please," Zero groaned.

And before Yuuki could process what was going on, Yagari pulled out a weapon, cocked it, and fired.

He reached down and grabbed Yuuki tightly around the waist before she could do anything, and whispered into her ear. "Don't scream; we don't need any more attention. He's not dead. That was a sort of tranquilizer." Then a pause. "But I might need help carrying him."

"But... why was—"

"I swear I will explain _everything _later."

The sky seemed darker than ever by the time they arrived in Zero's house—if it could be called that. Yagari hastily lit a couple lamps, and put some water on the stove to boil.

"Find some rags," he ordered. "We need to clean these wounds. He's a mess."

Yuuki grabbed one of the lamps and navigated around the small residence until she found a pile of folded washcloths on top of the bathroom counter. She felt inexplicably embarrassed, being in Zero's home. She hurried out to where Yagari and the unconscious Zero were, arriving just in time to hear the loud click of metal connecting together.

Yuuki's eyes quickly traveled in the dim light to see Yagari snapping cuffs around Zero's wrists. "What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Just a precaution." Yagari pulled a chair up next to the bed and flicked the lamp's flame to high. "Damn..." he said. "I told the stupid idiot to stay at home. Look at what he gets himself into."

Yagari deftly unbuttoned Zero's shirt, sucking a breath in at the sight of the wound on Zero's side. The half-hearted wrappings had been completely soaked through with blood, the wound torn open and bruised.

"Haven't you heard of disinfectant..." Yagari groaned. He cut the bandages, letting them fall to the side, and gestured to Yuuki to get the water from the kitchen. "The very least we can do is clean this," he told her.

Yuuki couldn't keep her fingers from trembling as she set the pan of water down onto the table. "Will he be all right?"

Yagari's expression was grim. "He's a strong kid, he'll definitely be all right. It didn't do him much good to get the crap kicked out of him by four guys, but I'm sure he'll pull through. That's not what I'm worried about, though."

"Will you tell me what's going on?" Yuuki said, sitting on the floor next to Zero's bed.

Yagari wetted a wash cloth and wrung it out over the steaming water. "It's not something you want to hear. It might change the way you think about those people you live with."

Yuuki wasn't giving up. "I don't care. I need to know what's wrong with Zero."

Yagari sighed. "A noble did it to him," he said.

Yuuki had somehow expected this, but it still struck her hard. "What do you mean? I mean... how?"

Yagari gave her a short glance. "You know that the people called 'nobles' are different, don't you? Different from normal people."

Yuuki bit her lip. "Umm..."

"They are," Yagari said. "I don't know how to explain it. It's been said that they were once a royal family who, in a bid to gain longer life and stronger bodies, drank poisons while pregnant, passing on strange toxins to their children. That's only a rumor, though. One of many. Whatever the truth is, those who are called nobles have intermarried for generations, keeping the blood of their families. Their eyes... you can tell a noble by looking at their eyes."

Yuuki nodded. "But what does that have to do with Zero?"

"It started out when this place was first founded, as a small farming town. I'm no historian, but I know that this place was run mostly by nobles. No castle, back then, just some very nice houses, and then a small group of normal people who lived in self-made shacks outside of the nobles' territory. The only way to live out in this place back then was to farm. The nobles survived by trading their goods with other towns. So you can understand that it would have been difficult when some-such nuisance started ruining their crops. The few workers they had tried endlessly to salvage the crops, but everyone was losing everything that had been planted to the pestilence. Trade was impossible. No one would come to the town, and even the nobles, with their great stores of goods and general good health, eventually began to fall ill. There were simply not enough people to work, and by the time the disease that had ruined all the crops had gone, there were not enough people left to replant, and not enough nobles left, either."

Yuuki listened without a word.

Yagari continued, "Until one twisted bastard found a way to survive. By injecting his own noble blood into the bloodstream of a human—and it was forbidden, back then, for a noble to share his or her blood with anyone—the 'recipient' would thenceforth gain the noble's own strength and agility. Believe me, it wasn't a pleasant process. By continually doing that, he revived his household. Unfortunately, he soon found that the changes his blood caused to the bodies of humans were damaging, and irreversible. First it was pain and illness, then madness, and, inevitably, death. The process was outlawed a couple years after that, when the humans formed a rebellion against the nobles. Where, before, they had both lived in relative peace, a war broke out. There were losses on both sides. This all happened over a hundred years ago."

Yuuki was confused. "But... Zero..."

Yagari looked down at the boy on the bed, his slender body bruised and vulnerable.

"Some people don't follow those old laws. Zero's family was killed by a noble, and he was intentionally infected. By all rights, he should have been dead years ago."

"Why?" Yuuki asked. "Why would a noble...?"

"Revenge." Yagari looked down at Zero's face, peaceful in unconsciousness, as if contemplating whether to say any more. Finally, he sighed, and continued. "Zero's family has, for a long time, been the protectors of the throne. They guarded the royal family against assassination, and took action if any attempts were made on the lives of the family members. One day, they got wind of a story that the Hiou family was raising more tainted humans in an attempt to take the throne—the Hiou family is one of the last truly pure ones, so they had almost as good a shot at it as the Kurans—and Zero's family took action. Following an order from the council, they assassinated one human that she had infected. And she killed them for that. Her current whereabouts are unknown. Since the nobles are above reproach, it was the _Kiryuus _that took the blame. They were branded as traitors, even in death."

Yuuki suddenly stiffened. "Kiryuu?"

Yagari seemed surprised. "Oh. You don't know his real name. In order to keep him alive, I gave him mine. But he just _had _to come to this place. He had to be as close as he could get to—" Yagari suddenly stopped, looking away.

"To...what?"

"I've said too much."

_Zero. _

_Zero Kiryuu..._

That was his name. Some sort of vague recognition niggled at Yuuki's mind, but the more she tried to grasp it, the farther it slipped away.

Yuuki tried to understand what had just been explained to her. "So, there's something you can do, right? To help him."

"Normally, there would be. The nobles have developed a drug using a compound similar to their own blood, and continuous infusions of it will allow an infected human to keep living. The truth is that the noble blood becomes warped inside of a human body, so only constant replenishment will allow the person to live. It's a horrible existence."

"But Zero is all right? Why is he like this, then?"

Yagari paused for a long time. "No one knows if it has to do with the age one is when infected, or maybe a unique property in the human blood, but...no. Zero cannot tolerate that drug."

It hit Yuuki like a splash of icy water. "So, he's..."

"Dying," Yagari finished. "And... he wouldn't want me to tell you this. He wouldn't want me to tell you anything, but I think you deserve to know at least that much. There are some things that he will need to tell you by himself, but... I think you need to know the truth. Those infected usually die no more than two years after infection. For him, it's been four. Only God knows what's going on. I'm just doing my best to make sure that he's not found out."

The lamp flickered as a violent gust of wind blew through the partially open window.

"But that's useless, now."

"Why?" Yuuki said desperately.

"Because those men will be found, one way or another. They'll wake up. They'll talk. Even if I finished the job and killed them, I'm positive that someone could link them with Zero, and then he would be found and interrogated. In his current condition, he probably wouldn't survive it, and besides that, even if he did, he'd be executed once they found out who—what—he was."

It was too much. Yuuki wasn't sure how her morning had plunged so suddenly into this. One moment it was mismatched shoes, the next it was treason and death. Too much.

Yuuki buried her face in her knees, trying to get her breathing under control. Finally, she calmed herself. "What can I do? I can... I don't know. I can hide him. Until he's well."

"And then?" Yagari asked. "What after that? I can't keep the Guard from looking for him. He would be imprisoned for injuring those soldiers. And he couldn't hide it in there. You'd be saving him just to condemn him to death again once he was found out."

"I don't know! But I'm not going to let them take him away! I won't ... won't..."

"This isn't something you can do half-heartedly."

"I—"

A resounding knock suddenly shattered the silence. "Zero Kiryuu! This is the Royal Guard! You are under arrest!"

_Kiryuu._

They already knew.

"Damn it!" Yagari stood to his feet, looking around frantically. "This is Touga Yagari, Captain of the Guard," he said, loudly enough to be heard. "I've searched the home. He's not here."

The man at the door took several moments to reply. "I'm under orders to search the house, sir."

"Then I order you to spend your time more wisely," Yagari called. At the same time, he removed the metal bands on Zero's wrists.

"I'm sorry, but you can't overrule a noble's order, sir."

Yagari let out a colorful string of cursewords. He turned to Yuuki. "There's no time. Are you serious about what you said?"

She was already on her feet. "Yes. Anything."

"Good. I chose this house for a reason. I'm going to get you and Zero out of here. You won't be able to move until he's conscious, but I'm going to show you where to go, and you will have to be completely silent. Can you do that?"

Yuuki nodded.

"There are tunnels that go up through the levels of this castle, all the way to the second-to-top level. You'll have to hide in there."

"Okay."

Suddenly, a crash resounded through the house, and the voice outside of the door was closer. "We're coming in, sir!"

Yagari kicked open a board in the wall. "Good. Get in. Now."

* * *

**Notes: **I'm glad that I was finally able to explain things a little bit in this chapter. It was a little bit more serious than the last, but I promise that it won't be all darkness and dreariness. Way too much darkness and dreariness in the current manga chapters. I just have to get them out of trouble first. I hope to be able to post the next chapter sometime this week. I'd love any thoughts at all! **Please Review?**


	6. On One Condition

/ / **Chapter Five: **_On One Condition _/ /

**Disclaimer/Notes: **I tried to write this chapter as quickly as possible. And then I was eaten by a whale. (Please ignore me.) But **OH MY GOSH**... _Vampire Knight chapter 39_. I like (_love_) Ichiru, but please excuse me while I cry and hate him a little. _Just _a little. (_..._) Okay. All done. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

* * *

Footsteps clattered into the house before Yuuki was even inside the dark, damp hole in the wall, but she had no time to panic.

Her heartbeats exploded in her chest as she slipped inside the narrow space, crawling back as far as she could get.

Yagari shot a glance first at the darkened opening in the wall, and then at the door. Picking Zero up with what seemed uncharacteristic gentleness, he passed him to Yuuki, who pulled him in and laid his head on her lap. She'd have to do some apologizing when he woke up. All this jarring couldn't be doing anything spectacularly good for him.

"It'll be dark," Yagari said by way of farewell. "But you can't come back here, no matter what, or they'll find you."

Hissing swearwords under his breath, he tossed a handful of things in with them, and, as an afterthought, blew out the first lamp and shoved it in as well. He picked up the piece of wood that covered the entrance, and slammed it back into place. Near-complete darkness showered over Yuuki's vision. She heard an ominous click, and knew that the only visible escape would not be opening again.

Distant voices drifted to her from the other side of the door.

"...bandages," she heard an unknown voice say.

Yagari was calm. "Looks like he came back here and then left soon after."

"Blood's still wet," observed the nameless soldier, his voice garbled and hard to hear.

Yagari, closer to them, was much easier to make out. "That doesn't mean much," he said coolly. "There's too much blood for it to dry quickly."

Yuuki was pretty sure that the soldier said, "...Oh."

She waited until he and Yagari walked out of the room before she gathered the things he'd thrown in, identifying them with her fingers rather than her eyes. She found a box of matches, a roll of bandages, and various other things that he seemed to have grabbed completely at random—some of which Yuuki could not identify. She shoved them into her pockets and closed her eyes, opening them again to see absolutely no difference. It was ominous in here. She felt a cold, damp breeze whistling down what must have been a long tunnel in the pitch-blackness behind her, tickling at her back, and she closed her eyes again and did her very best not to think.

She could hear that they were still inside the house. Maybe more than just Yagari and the one soldier. She heard distant thumps and crashes, as if the contents of the house were being disrespectfully strewn over the floors. Yuuki felt angry on Zero's behalf. This didn't seem fair at all. She twined her fingers in his warm hair and let herself open her eyes, feeling less apprehensive about the darkness. His hair was soft, she thought absently.

It was odd the things one thought when one was scared.

He probably wouldn't he happy about this if he woke up. Yuuki decided that she'd figure that out when the time came. No use worrying until then. She allowed herself a small giggle—though, in retrospect, it was probably born more of a mix of detached denial and hysterical fear than amusement.

Zero groaned a little, and Yuuki instinctively pulled her hands away, letting them slide down to the ground beside him. "Yuuki..." he said, though she wasn't sure if he actually knew she was there, or if he was just randomly saying her name. "Don't stop..."

Feeling rather flustered, she nodded, though she doubted he was completely conscious of what he'd just said. Somehow, the wary grin grew wide, and she returned her hands to his hair, slipping both of them into the soft strands. She closed her eyes again, this time out of relief, not fear, and before she knew it, she had drifted off.

* * *

She fell asleep in darkness, and woke to light.

Immediately, she was afraid. Her eyes swung frantically around the narrow tunnel, catching on the warm flame of the lamp Yagari had thrown in. Sitting against the wall beside it was Zero. Yuuki's fear immediately bubbled down. She breathed a long breath of relief. Zero gave her a wan look of reassurance, but seemed determined not to meet her eyes.

She wasn't sure exactly what to say, either, so they sat there for a good five minutes, each trying their very best not to look at the other.

He finally broke the silence, his voice apologetic and nearly inaudible. "Are you ... okay?"

The question shocked Yuuki. "What do you mean?" she demanded.

He winced like the words stung.

"I'm fine. I'm worried about _you!_" she said exasperatedly.

This time he jumped. The wince this time wasn't from surprise. "But ... I ..."

Yuuki softened her voice, trying to contain her incredulity that he could_ actually_ be worrying about _her_. "The most I'll have in a few days is a scrape on the back of my legs," she told him matter-of-factly. "But that place I cut you was getting infected. I'm really sorry. That was why..." her voice broke off. "It's really all my fault, what happened to you. If I hadn't asked you to fight me yesterday..."

He seemed horrified that she was blaming herself for all of it. "No!" he said.

Silence fell.

It suddenly seemed to dawn on both of that they were going back and forth, casting the blame on themselves. In a way, the whole thing was vaguely amusing.

"It wasn't your fault at all," he finished meekly. Another long silence settled over them. "What happened? Where are we?"

Yuuki moved closer to the lamp. "We're sort of still in your house, but not really. That man pushed me in here when the soldiers came... He cleaned your wounds, too. He said ... we can't come back."

"We?" Zero said. "You mean me. You're going to go back to the castle right away," he said. "You can't be mixed up in this. You don't know what..."

Yuuki felt indignant anger surge through her veins. It wasn't a feeling she was used to, but it boiled to the surface under the pressure of her fear. "Yes I do know _what!_Yagari told me everything. And I'm not leaving you here. I'm not going to let them find you. I don't care what I have to do!"

"Yuuki..." he used her name with heart-breaking familiarity, and it somehow felt _right _to her, though she couldn't explain why. She wanted to embrace him. "You know about...about..." His suddenly shocked face showed acidic contempt—directed not at her but at himself, as if he couldn't understand why she could still look at him like she had before. "My _God..._" Shaking, he buried his face into his hands.

Yuuki moved closer to him, crawling along the floor until she was on the other side of the lamp with him. Her knees brushed his as she looked straight into his stunning lavender eyes. "I do know," she said, and continued to hold his gaze even when he tried to look away. "And I don't think of you any different than how I did yesterday. I'm not one bit afraid."

"You should be!" The pain turned quickly to anger. "What if I killed you?" he said. The thought seemed to cause him much more pain and shock than it caused her. "I could...and...not even know it, until..." he swallowed convulsively.

Yuuki couldn't take it anymore. She pressed her fingers to his lips. "Sshhh." The agonized expression on his face sliced into her soul. She felt that she would do anything to make him smile, and that feeling felt as natural to her as breathing. "Don't," she whispered. "I won't let you." A soft laugh escaped her lips. "What do you think I've been taking defense lessons for?"

The thought didn't brighten him much, though his lips curled with wry amusement. "You might as well not be," he told her smoothly. "If you hadn't gone ape on me yesterday when the captain called, you would have been toast. It's ... not enough. You can't keep following me."

And she thought maybe he was right. What would Kaname do when he found she was missing? Wouldn't Zero be in more danger if she was bumbling clumsily beside him?

She bit her lip. "These tunnels lead to the next-to-top level of the castle, right before the Royal Court. If we get up there, I can get supplies, and keep you here until you've healed."

And that was as far as she could think at the moment. What came after ... what happened if he left ...

_No._ No thinking about that. Not yet.

"Then let's get going," he said. "We can't risk being found."

And as much as she wanted to protest that he shouldn't be moving at all right now, he was right. Time was truly of the essence. Pulling his knees up, he allowed her to pass, saying that he would follow behind.

Yuuki grabbed the lamp, and they began to crawl. After about five minutes, they hit a larger tunnel—one of the sewers that ran under the city streets, and were finally able to stand upright. Stairs glowed dimly in the lamp's illumination.

And so it went. The sewer tunnels seemed to run in endless, agonizing horizontal stretches, at the end of which was always a small staircase. In order to get from one staircase to the next, they had to walk all the way across each tunnel from the small walkways that ran along either side. The small upward climb afterward didn't seem worth it each time they started over again.

All the way across, then a brief climb upward. Over, and over, and over again, until the lamp's oil was running dangerously low, its flame flickering pathetically in the damp air. Yuuki could hear Zero behind her, gasping in erratic breaths as his footsteps echoed unevenly across the ground behind her.

"Keep going," he told her softly whenever she stopped to look back at him. She turned the lamp's flame lower than ever, trying to step over the occasionally misplaced, jutting bricks without tripping. Ten, twenty, thirty minutes swept by, punctuated by the monotonous sound of footsteps. Yuuki stopped abruptly when she realized that Zero's were getting more and more distant. She turned around.

Staggering several feet behind, he leaned against the wall, his face pale and flecked with sweat.

"Zero?" Yuuki asked worriedly.

"It's nothing ... give me a second..." But his body betrayed his reassuring words. He lurched his knees and clasped a hand over his face. "Just ... dizzy," he whispered, coughing wretchedly in an attempt to catch his breath. He ended up gasping, until the sound choked off and he gagged, weak body shuddering violently. Already close enough to the edge of the walkway, all he had to do was lean over as he retched again, his stomach rejecting its meager contents into the tainted water below.

"Zero!" Yuuki's face creased with concern. His hurt was so palpable in the air that Yuuki could almost say she felt it. Biting her lip with such force that she almost broke the skin, she took off the knit sweater she'd pulled on over the dress she wore. It was small, but she couldn't just do nothing. Kneeling beside him, she draped it over his trembling shoulders. "This is far enough for today," she said quietly, blinking away tears that suddenly stung at her eyes. "Far enough for now. You need rest."

Zero wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and squeezed his eyes shut tight. "We need to—"

"No!" Yuuki's voice was high from the attempt to suppress tears. "I'm not going to keep walking while you're like this!"

Zero gave her an agonized stare full of apologies. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Once again, she offered her lap as a pillow.

He slept fitfully, and when his body tensed up with pain, she heard her name pass his lips, like a prayer. She didn't know why, but that one small thing sent all her pent-up tears rolling down.

"I'm here. I'm here, Zero."

* * *

When Yuuki made her decision, she didn't tell Zero, because she knew he wouldn't agree. He'd say something about not wanting her to get in trouble, and that wouldn't have worked at all.

Apologizing silently, she slipped his head off of her lap, folding her sweater beneath it. She lit a match and blew it out, then used the charred tip to write a brief note on the matchbox.

_Back soon, _it said.

She stood and walked to the staircase, hoping that he wouldn't do anything stupid before she got back. But the fact was that he was in no condition to move, and they needed food. Not only that, but she was sure he could do with a blanket.

And Yuuki had immediately thought of Yori, who could access both without anyone questioning her. If only Yuuki could convince her friend not to talk to anyone else, it would surely be all right.

Yuuki continued up the staircases until she reached the end—an opening in yet another wall. This one led out of a tunnel that ended in the middle of two buildings in the servants' quarters. Yuuki thanked any deity that was listening for her excellent luck, and crept around, jumping and stifling shrieks at the slightest sound, until she found Yori's door.

She really needed to work on this whole stealth thing.

Uncomfortable to be standing still in bright light for more than a second, Yuuki knocked. She considered that perhaps this whole thing had been a bad idea at the moment when Yori opened the door. Her friend's face showed nothing but shock.

Quickly, Yori pulled Yuuki inside, crushing her in a tight hug. "My God! Kaname sent the Royal Guard down, thinking you'd been attacked. They thought you were in the company of a wanted fugitive!"

"Umm... well, about the fugitive part..." Yuuki said slowly, trying to think of a way to properly approach the subject.

Yori pushed Yuuki back, searching her eyes calmly. "You mean it's _true_?" she asked.

"Yeah.. except he's not how you make him sound. And..." _Oh, boy. Here came the hard part. _"I actually ... kind of ... need your help again."

Yori gave Yuuki a long stare, as she often did, as if to assess her royal friend. "Okay, tell all. Don't leave anything out," she said.

And Yuuki told; not all, but enough. "And he's injured," she finished. "I need your help getting some food and blankets and ... I dunno, whatever I should use to wrap his wounds."

Yori was silent for a very long time, and Yuuki rocked nervously back and forth on her heels, wondering if she'd done the right thing in coming to Yori.

"All right," the girl finally said. "On one condition."

"Condition?" Yuuki echoed, thinking this was a horrible idea with each passing second.

"I want to meet him. I'm not going to help without knowing who I'm helping."

Yuuki gulped, knowing her friend well enough to see that Yori would not back down. "When?"

"Now, if that's all right. If I find him satisfactory, I'll bring you anything you need."

Yuuki nodded. "Follow me," she said.

* * *

**Notes: **Okay, so I've been _dying _to have Yori and Zero meet, so I hope to have the next chapter up soon. Thanks for reading! I'm having fun writing this, and can only hope that you may be enjoying the read. Writing an AU is completely new territory for me, so I'm _constantly_ terrified that I'll break unspoken rules or screw things up irreparably. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated! **Please Review?**


	7. Not a Sin to Dream

/ / **Chapter Six: **_Not a Sin to Dream _/ /

**Disclaimer/Notes: **Lol, when writing this, I couldn't help imagining Yori as a protective older-sister type. I can totally bet that if Yuuki ever actually settles with one of the guys in Vampire Knight, Yori will be all over them to make sure that they deserve Yuuki.

* * *

"Nice place you have here," Yori said dryly as they trekked down the twelfth staircase.

"Not much farther," Yuuki told her. "And...he's asleep right now."

"That's all right. I'm a patient person."

Another staircase, then two more, but at last, they arrived on the one where Yuuki and Zero were camping out. Yuuki had been right; he was still fast asleep. Yori walked up to him, the sounds of her footsteps intentionally muted—nearly inaudible. She knelt down next to him, resting her elbows on her knees and her face into her outstretched hands, and stared for several moments. Then, shrugging, she sat back. "Odd," she said.

"Odd?" echoed Yuuki.

Yori seemed to think her assessment needed no further explanation. "And...is that your sweater under his head?"

Unable to stem a soft laugh, Yuuki nodded.

"He looks pretty tired," Yori observed. "How many staircases did you climb before this?"

Yuuki had actually lost count, and told Yori as much. The girl nodded. "He's determined, at least," she said. She looked at Yuuki, and after several moments, observed, "You're really worried about him."

"...Yeah."

"How long do you think he'll sleep?"

Yuuki played with her fingers, and sneaked a glance at Zero's face. "For a long time, I hope. He needs it. I have the feeling he hasn't slept much for the past few days." Then she realized that she couldn't have Yori waiting for him all day. "Umm..." she began.

As if reading her thoughts, Yori said, "I'll give him an hour or so. If he likes, he can go back to sleep when I'm done."

Yuuki laughed at her friend's straightforwardness. So typical of Yori.

It didn't actually take an hour. Zero woke up and frantically looked around upon seeing the sweater folded beneath his head. He sat up, though it was easy to see that the movement took effort, and glared at Yori. His eyes flicked momentarily to Yuuki with a question. "Who's she?"

Yuuki didn't have time to answer. Yori spoke before she could. "That's not very nice. You should directly address the person you're inquiring about."

"Who are _you_?" Zero rephrased tersely.

"I am Sayori Wakaba. I may or may not let you call me Yori. And you?"

He didn't seem inclined to offer his name to her. After a long pause and an intense scrutiny of her, he said. "Zero. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here on Yuuki's invitation. If you'd like to eat, you'll tolerate me for a little bit."

Zero looked pale at the mention of food. "I actually wouldn't," he told her. "But I'll tolerate you." There was a long pause. "How do you... know Yuuki? You're not a noble."

"Formally, I am her servant," Yori said. "Informally and more truthfully, I am her friend. How do _you_ know Yuuki?"

"I met her when she came down to train," Zero said.

A split-second pause. "You're lying."

His expression pleaded with her to let this one question go. She gave him a slight nod, not giving in, but saving the question for later. "And do you have any dishonorable intentions concerning Yuuki?" she asked.

Zero blinked. "Are you serious?"

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," Yori said. "But the question still stands."

"You're odd," Zero said in place of a reply.

This time it was Yuuki who laughed. "I'm glad you both have the same opinion of one another."

Zero's gaze didn't waver. Yori looked at him, reading his expression, and said to Yuuki, "Would you go up and make sure that no one is around, Yuuki?" she said, and though it was an alltogether illogical request, Yuuki nodded and left.

As soon as she was gone, Yori turned to Zero. "Tell me what you're doing. I've heard a lot about you in the last few hours, and _none_ of it has been good. You have until Yuuki gets back to convince me not to turn you in."

Zero didn't panic, nor did he seem in any hurry to explain himself. "I want to keep Yuuki safe," he said. "The Royal Guard and a whole bunch of other jerks are after me because they think I'm dangerous, and are determined to immediately exterminate me."

"And are you?"

"Dangerous?" Zero asked, but he didn't answer directly. "Yuuki would be in danger if she came with me, which she seems intent on doing. I might have to ask you to keep her from doing that."

Yori was silent for a long time, then stood. At the very same moment, Yuuki walked back down the stairs, saying breathlessly that there was no one anywhere near this place.

Yori smiled at Yuuki, walking to greet her, and then said, "I will bring food and blankets down here as soon as I can do so without being seen. I'll also bring you a change of clothes, Yuuki, and anything else I can think of."

Yuuki smiled widely. "So you trust Zero?"

Yori shifted her gaze toward said person, then replied kindly to Yuuki, "I don't _mistrust_ him." She stepped past Yuuki and started up the stairs. "Back soon," she promised.

Zero fell asleep before she came back, which was partially a good thing, since Yori encouraged her friend to change out of the dirt-soiled dress as soon as possible. Yori had brought a jug of water, several tins of soup, and some fruit, which she hoped would last a while, and had used two folded blankets to hide all the provisions in. She laid them on the ground once everything had been shaken from them, including some washcloths and bandages. Immediately, Yuuki took one of the blankets up and unfolded it, draping it around Zero, who had fallen asleep sitting against the wall.

"I have to head back, Yuuki," Yori said apologetically. "Kaname is going mad looking for you. When do you plan to return?"

Guilt sliced into Yuuki at the thought of the concern she was undoubtedly causing Kaname. "I... don't know. If I do, do you think Kaname will let me out of his sight for long enough to let me come back here?"

Yori's expression was enough of an answer. "But the longer you wait to come back, the less likely that he'll be lenient on Zero here."

Yuuki's lips pursed. "I can't leave him alone like this."

"You know I'd tend to him, Yuuki. I'm not exactly besotted with the boy, but I wouldn't leave him to starve or die."

Yuuki's gaze begged for understanding. "I know, Yori. I trust you. But ... I can't..."

Yori smiled. "Don't worry about it, Yuuki. I know you, and as crazy as it seems to me, I'll let you stay here. I need to go before I'm missed." She started toward the staircase, then stopped. "Good luck. And ... if you need to get a message to me, leave a note at the exit to this place. I'll find it. Check there every once in a while, too. I'll leave something there if I have anything to say." And Yori departed, her footsteps echoing back loudly.

Glancing over at Zero's sleeping form, Yuuki frowned to realize that he was shaking. She shook out the second blanket and wrapped it around him, but it made little difference. She gently nudged him until he opened his eyes. "Zero... you should lay down," she said softly. She used the first blanket to fold out on top of the damp stones, and wrapped the second around him when he laid down. He continued to shake.

"Are you cold?" she whispered.

He closed his eyes tightly, gripping the blankets against himself. "I don't know," he replied, barely audible. "Tired..."

"Sleep, then." Before she realized what she was doing, Yuuki threaded her fingers through his hair, gently tracing over the soft strands on the top of his head, and humming a tune she could no longer remember the words to. She continued rustling her fingers through the silver strands until she heard the shallow breaths of sleep. His face was damp with sweat when Yuuki reached to wipe strands of hair away from his eyes, and his skin was warm against her fingertips.

Yuuki used the jug of water to wet one of the cloths Yori had brought, and wiped Zero's face, leaving the cloth folded over his eyes when she was done with it.

Yuuki chewed her lip as reality set in, and steeled herself for a sleepless night. Zero's wounds would need checked and cleaned, and Yuuki had almost no experience with things like that. She didn't dare call for a doctor, because the whole city was on watch for Zero. It wasn't fair, not when he hadn't asked for any of this. Wouldn't they all be happy, then, if Zero died in here. Yuuki rubbed her eyes furiously to keep tears from forming.

She couldn't do this. She didn't know the first thing about what he was going through, or what she could do to help.

But she had to do what she could. Yuuki steeled herself and pulled back the blanket, biting back guilt when he shuddered. "Shh," she said, though she knew he couldn't hear her. "I'm just going to see if your bandages are still clean."

She lifted the shirt he wore, disappointed to see that the bandages Yagari wrapped had already been soiled with blood. Most of it was dry—probably from when Zero had pushed himself so hard earlier—but there still seemed to be a slow ooze leaking out from the bandages. Yuuki tried not to look at the angry red marks or the blue and purple bruising that covered most of Zero's abdomen.

As bad as it looked, time would heal it all.

But time was the problem.

Unable to face changing the bandages on her own, Yuuki pulled the blanket over him once more, and rested next to him on the cold stones.

And in his sleep, brokenly, he whispered her name. "Yuuki..."

"Right here," she whispered. She sought out his warm hand from beneath the blankets.

Against the odds, she fell asleep next to him, her fingers twined in his.

* * *

"Yuuki."

_Go away, you're interfering with my dream._

"_Yuuuuu_ki..."

_Stop it. That tickles._

"Wow, you sure can _sleep,_" drawled a tired voice by her ear.

_Oh crap, she was sleeping!_

Which must have been a no-brainer, but Yuuki wasn't known for her brains in the morning. Not that she was particularly intelligent even in the evenings.

"I can't believe I fell a—" Yuuki jerked upright, looking around. It took a moment to realize that she was warm. Also, she had somehow made it onto the blankets last night. Which, of course, meant that Zero had moved elsewhere. "Zero?" she asked tentatively, trying to get her eyes adjusted to the characteristic dimness in this place.

He spoke from her left side, a smile in his voice. "You've been asleep so long, I was starting to think you were dead."

"Sorry," she said. "Are you—?"

"I'm fine." He sounded slightly embarrassed. "I'm really sorry. It's usually worst on the first night, after ... umm ... yeah. Sorry if I freaked you out or said anything stupid."

_He'd said her name. Did he consider her name stupid? _Perhaps; since he seemed to think the rest of her was stupid. "What about your wounds?"

Zero shrugged. "I changed the bandages. It's fine for now. And..." he looked in the opposite direction for a moment. "Umm... thanks."

Yuuki blinked. "For what?"

"I don't know," Zero said quickly. "Whatever."

Yuuki smiled, feeling her good mood return with the morning and a full night's sleep. "You're welcome. Shall I make breakfast? Our options are plentiful; we can have either fruit or soup. Any particular preference?"

"Soup," Zero said after a moment's pause. "I'm not very hungry."

In the course of pulling a tin of soup from the pile of provisions Yori had brought, Yuuki reached out her hand and felt Zero's forehead. He frowned, raising his eyebrows, but took her assessment without comment.

"Much better," she said, nodding decisively and pulling her hand away. "You should really eat some fruit. It's delicious." She tossed him a pear, just in case. "There's no stove, so the soup is cold."

They ate in silence, and it somehow felt normal to Yuuki, like maybe eating cold food with fugitives in sewer tunnels was something she did every day.

"I wish we could go out today. You probably haven't seen the city this high up. I counted on the way back down, and this place where we are now is one of the higher residential districts. When all this rolls over, you have to come with me one of these days."

Zero laughed. "And do what, shop and eat ice cream?"

But they both knew that this wasn't going to roll over easily, and even if it did, that "one day" would probably never come. But it was all right. It wasn't a sin to dream.

"I'm going to go check the exit," Yuuki said. "Yori said she'd leave a note there if anything happened."

Zero stood. "I'll come with you, then."

Yuuki shook her head. It was refreshing how easy it was to say no to him. "You can't be seen. If I am, at the very least, we'll keep them guessing which floor you're on."

Zero pointed to a grate that the water flowed through, probably to a place further into whatever level of the city they were on. "The bars there are damaged. If it comes to that, I can go through there and find a manhole that leads up into the city. It wouldn't be too hard to escape from there."

Yuuki nodded. "I'll be back soon," she said.

He looked after her as if he wanted to say something, but offered her a heart-breakingly soft smile, finally whispering, "Be safe."

She took the steps quickly, feeling an odd sense of unease creeping into her mind. She found herself looking back and jumping at shadows more than ever. Even though she told herself that she was just being paranoid, since, after all, this was her first time in the company of someone hunted by the law, she still couldn't completely erase her fear. She made it to the exit and found a dirty piece of paper stuck to the wall backwards. Yori had left a note.

Pulling it off the wall, Yuuki scanned the frantically written words.

_Yuuki. Meet me in the corridor overlooking the courtyard as soon as you get this note. It's an emergency._

She had signed her name in a hasty scrawl. Yuuki found Yori's choice of meeting place odd, but it was true that there was rarely any traffic in that section of the castle.

Yuuki looked backwards, wondering if she should tell Zero where she was going. Again, she decided against it. He didn't need to be seen. He'd surely do something impulsive if she told him.

Yuuki climbed out of the tunnel and into the entrance to the servants' quarters, finding the halls echoingly empty, which suited her purposes just fine. She exited through the only door that connected the servants' level to the top, and continued through the silent halls until she finally arrived in the corridor. The sky was overcast today, with deep steel gray clouds advancing ominously—violently crashing together with a resounding silence.

It would not only rain today. It would pour.

The garden looked hauntingly lonely in the barely present light of the washed-out sun, and an involuntary shudder rippled through Yuuki. Even the brightest flowers were washed with the dead gray illumination. She wondered what was happening that had made Yori so desperate to meet.

Rubbing her hands together, Yuuki stood in the darkness and waited for Yori's telltale footsteps.

But when a voice spoke gently from somewhere near her, it was not Yori.

It was Kaname, his deep maroon eyes filled with an exquisite sadness.

She whispered his name and stepped back, but he reached out a hand to hold hers.

And when he spoke, the warmth drained from her body.

"I'm sorry, Yuuki," he said. "I'm so sorry."

Yuuki felt inexplicable tears pricking her eyes as her mind raced a hundred miles an hour to comprehend what was going on. "What is it?" she asked.

"I had to see you."

"Where's Yori?"

He said what should have already been apparent to her. "Yori didn't leave that note, Yuuki..." His voice was soft in a way that reminded her of the gentleness of someone who held a fragile object that might shatter at any moment. "I had to do this. I hope you will understand one day."

Her heart froze in her chest. And she already knew, but she had to ask. "Had to do what?"

Kaname's gaze was solid and sure, but apologetic. "As of this moment, Zero Kiryuu is being arrested," he said. "He will be executed for treason."

* * *

**Notes:** Umm... the devil made me do it? I promise I'll have the next chapter up as soon as possible. And I promise that Kaname is not going to be any sort of villain in this story. Anyway, thankfully, things will be getting back to the action soon enough. I hope to give all the minor characters a role in this story at some point. (_crosses fingers_) **Please Review?**


	8. Waking Nightmare

/ / **Chapter Seven: **_Waking Nightmare _/ /

**Disclaimer/Notes:** If the last chapter was "Yori meets Zero", this one is more like, "Yori meets eight malicious royal guards." Or something like that... Anyway, things are definitely starting to move in this chapter, which sort of terrifies me, because it means that there's a lot to do, from now on.

* * *

"Executed?" Yuuki echoed. Her lungs felt like they were collapsing—like she couldn't get a good breath in no matter how hard she tried. The corridor, open to the view of the courtyard gardens, was filled with the sound of wind. Thunder crackled distantly, and the air that blew against Yuuki's face from the opening was damp with the promise of rain.

Her mind went back to the events that had drawn her here. "What about Yori...?"

"She knows nothing about this," Kaname reassured. "I knew that if you spoke to anyone, it would be her. I sent someone to follow her, to see if she met you or Kiryuu."

_Zero... _Yuuki's attention jolted back to the current situation. "Why are you doing this? He hasn't..." But her lips could not finish the thought.

"He is a danger to you, whether that is his intention or not. I will not allow anyone to harm you, Yuuki. Not anyone." Kaname gestured to the raw, red scrapes on the back of her legs from where she had been slammed into the rough wall. That seemed like it had happened ages ago.

"He won't—he doesn't—he didn't mean to hurt me!"

"But unless something is done, things like this will continue."

Yuuki tried to pull her hand from his. Desperation colored her every movement. "No!" she screamed. "He hasn't done anything wrong! It wasn't his fault! He hasn't—!"

Kaname pulled her close, and his words rumbled gently against her ear. "It seems you know, now, the crimes that nobles can commit. It's a horrible thing for anyone to put a human through such a tortuous process, Yuuki. For him to have lived as long as he has is more than a miracle—it's unheard of. But the disease is still progressing, and as terrible as it sounds, I think he would agree with me when I say that he would be better off dead now than to die shamefully under the grip of that disease, after hurting or even killing the people he cares about."

"You can't..." She tried to pry free of his hold. He allowed her to extricate herself from his embrace, but he still held her hand, in a gentle but unbreakably firm grasp. "You can't!"

"I already have, Yuuki." Long fingers caressed her face, and his eyes showed staggering sorrow. "You know I wish I would never have to do anything that would hurt you, Yuuki, but this will be better for you in the end." He silenced her reply with a finger to her lips. Tears streamed silently down her face as he continued to speak. "Zero Kiryuu will be arrested and executed. It is a horrible thing, but this is the only mercy one can visit upon those whose infection has advanced as far as his has."

"Zero's getting better...! He's fine, Kaname. Let me go. Please ... let me go."

"And what about next time, Yuuki? It may seem like he's getting better, but that disease will chip away at him forever, until he dies from it. How many lives do you think he can take when he goes mad, Yuuki? How many will you allow him to hurt because of your selfish whims? Is your companionship worth lives?"

Yuuki's body shook with sobs. This wasn't real. This wasn't happening.

But it was.

"Why does he have to die for it?" she screamed. "Why does he have to die for a crime someone else committed?"

Kaname silenced her with his next words. "He is already dying, Yuuki. He has been ever since four years ago. You'll only hurt yourself by denying it." He tipped up her chin with his fingers and spoke again. "He is dying. He knows it."

_No! _Yuuki pulled desperately at the hand he held, twisting her body—trying to tear away.

"I will not let you sacrifice yourself for your memories, Yuuki."

The words echoed like a heartbeat in her mind, over and over.

_Her memories._

Kaname continued in a whisper. "This, _now_, is your true self, Yuuki. Foolishly chasing shadows will do nothing but break your heart."

Yuuki closed her eyes to a shuddering blackness, and remembered the dreams she had, of a beautifully flawed perfection, and somehow, she thought she could see Zero in that place with her. Her whole body froze. _Her mind was playing with her, wasn't it?_

"Yuuki," Kaname said.

The words blurred between past and present, and Yuuki heard another voice saying her name—younger, softer. _"Yuuki..."_

And her own words echoed to her ears from the past, though she did not know when or in what circumstances she had said them._ I won't leave you alone!_

Somehow, she knew that she had lied when she had spoken those words. Yuuki shuddered in Kaname's grasp, staggering to her knees.

She didn't plan what happened next. She was barely conscious of anything, even as her mind raced desperately to catch up with everything she had been told.

Surprised by her reaction, Kaname released her hand, catching her deftly under the arms. "Yuuki!"

Her breathing came in short gulps of air, and a sense of her surroundings returned. _She couldn't let Zero die. _She lifted her arms so that she slid from Kaname's hold, stumbling to one knee before regaining her balance.

"Yuuki, no!" Kaname said.

She didn't know where she got the speed from, but Kaname's fingers grazed hers, slipping away as she vaulted over the stone corridor's railing, landing in the foliage of the gardens below. As she landed, the rain began to fall, hitting the surface of the earth with huge, violent droplets of water that masked Yuuki's voice and her tears.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, praying that Kaname could forgive her. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." The words faded into an agonized plea as she ran, throwing open the courtyard door and running down the steps. She counted the openings. _One, two...three..._

She could not stop running.

* * *

_Ahhh... damn it._

Leaning sleepily against the wall, Zero thought for a single moment that the incoming footsteps were Yuuki's. The realization of the truth hit him quickly, though, snapping him to attention: Yuuki's steps were not that slow or that heavy. By the time he had gotten to his feet, a man had stepped in through the entrance Yuuki had left from.

Turning quickly in the other direction, Zero ran, determined to go down if he could not go up. Before he got there, several men filed out, stiffly holding weapons at their sides.

On any day other than this one, Zero probably would have heard the first man coming up behind him and reacted accordingly, but today was not any other day, and by the time he felt the disturbance of air and heard the sound of muted footsteps, a vice-like grip had clenched around his shoulders. His eyes quickly took in the sight before him. Eight men; whoever had sent them was not fooling around. There was no way he could take them on. Zero struggled determinedly as the man's hands slid down to his arms, intent on immobilizing him.

Jerking his right shoulder and freeing it from the guard's grip, Zero eyed his only way of escape. A checkered metal grate through which the city's sewage flowed through separated one section of tunnel from the next. Ten years ago, it would have been impassable, but the once solid bars had become twisted, rusted and partially destroyed by the passage of time and filthy water. If Zero could give these soldiers the illusion that he was harmless and lower their guard, it would only be a matter of using their lax attention against them and distancing himself from their swinging blades once he escaped.

That, of course, would be the biggest problem. Surprising his captor was one thing; getting the other seven off-guard would be much harder.

Escape would be near-impossible.

Zero, however, did not plan to be captured. Capture meant death, one way or another. A soft set of distant footsteps, unheard by the guards near to him, echoed to Zero's ears, sending both hope and dread through him. _Yuuki...? My God, don't come back to something like this. _He couldn't let her see this. Not Yuuki. But these footsteps were not hers, either, and he saw a flash of color before the visitor noticed the situation and ducked out of harm's way.

What Zero saw was a flash of pale hair and a shocked but familiar gaze. She stepped back out into the open, slowly, and met his eyes, her own face devoid of expression. After a moment, thoughtfully, she nodded. Though the meeting of eyes was brief, an immediate message was conveyed.

_Wait for it, _the eyes of Sayori Wakaba seemed to say.

Zero waited.

After a pause, Yori stepped through the doorway and stamped her feet, grabbing the solders' attention. Weapons rose to point in her direction, and authoritatively, into the tense silence, Yori yelled, "In the name of Kaname Kuran, you are ordered to cease!"

Zero found her diversionary tactic wonderfully simple, but he knew that any soldier would hesitate upon hearing the Kuran name. Obeying the orders of the royal family was something ingrained into every soldier from birth to death. In the single ensuing moment of uncertainty, Zero took action.

Putting all his strength into a violent backward shove, he freed himself from the shocked guard's hold. Ducking grasping fingers, he slammed an elbow into his captor's neck.

He ran.

Glinting blades swung too late, whistling into thin air and clattering deafeningly against carefully laid brick.

Desperately, he tossed a glance back at Yori, who stood as calm as ever in the midst of everything.

"Stupid! Don't look _back!_" she said. "Run! Now! I'll be pissed if you're caught!"

One day, he would repay Yori. Casting her a grateful glance, he ran through the filthy water, which was thankfully less than a foot deep, and shoved himself through the narrow space in the destroyed metal grate. He heard screamed orders behind him and the splash of footsteps running to catch up.

"Patrol all exits in the upper city!" said one man.

Time was of the essence. Zero jumped onto the ladder of the first manhole he found, desperate to get into the city before all the guards were watching all the exits. Unfortunately, it also meant that he had no time to get rid of his pursuers. At least three of the eight guards were somewhere behind him.

Once he had climbed out, Zero kicked the manhole cover back down, standing over it with muscles tensed, and waited for it to rise again. As soon as it did, he kicked down with all the force he could muster, slamming the weighty metal down onto an unsuspecting soldier's head. A satisfying splash could be heard.

Zero ran. As he did, he thought of Yori, and Yagari, and...

_Yuuki._

It was for her best. It was for her best that she did not get involved in this. Whatever Kuran planned to do with Zero, he would not allow harm to come to Yuuki, something which Zero was grudgingly grateful for. He spared just enough time to stare upward at the higher sections of the city. Yuuki was up there somewhere.

_Goodbye._

* * *

_...Nine..._

Yuuki breathed in shallow pants, both out of desperation and exertion, as she ran past yet another shadowed opening.

_...Twelve..._

Her eyes scanned her surroundings. She looked back into the darkness, but saw nothing.

_...Fourteen._

This was it. Yuuki raced into that opening, moving past the guards stationed at the entrance and into the residential area. She didn't know how she would find him. Perhaps he had never made it out through that grate and up into the city. Perhaps he had been captured down there.

But out of pure desperation, she ran on.

She heard voices, but recognized none of them. She must have been a sight, she thought, racing through the streets in her rain-soaked, mud-streaked clothing. She thought that maybe it would have been better if she stopped to ask someone if the Royal Guard had been seen on this level, but she didn't dare to stop running. Stopping meant giving up, so she ran on.

At last, she heard it. It was distant, but unmistakable. The sound of shouted orders. The shocked cry of passersby. Though it was a wrenching sound, it gave her hope, and she ran in the direction of the sound.

Halfway there, someone grabbed her.

_Not again._

"Let go of me!" she screamed, but a hand clamped over her mouth, and a breathless voice spoke into her ear, melting her resistance.

"Sshhhh... Yuuki," it said.

_Zero._

She shook violently from exertion and emotion, tearing herself from his grasp only to throw her arms around him. "They were going to take you, he said that they would take you and I couldn't let them. It's not your fault. It's not your fault... I couldn't..." her words dissolved into grateful sobs, and Zero awkwardly wrapped his arms around her.

"Shh," he said. "Shh... I'm glad you're all right. I thought you would be." He pulled her further into the darkness of the alleyway, holding her tightly against him. "Yuuki, tell me what's wrong."

She was still shaking, though her thoughts had begun to calm themselves. "Yori... she left a note, and ... but ... Kaname said that you were going to be arrested, that you were going to die, and I couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let you be killed."

Pain showed in Zero's eyes as he continued to hold her. "Yuuki..." he said softly.

She saw the expression in his eyes, and shook her head. "Don't say it!" she begged. "I don't care. I'm not going to let anything happen to you. I'll do anything—anything—"

"He was right, Yuuki."

A shuddering gasp caught in her chest.

"I don't plan to let myself be killed, but I can run by myself; it's something I've been doing for a long time. Kuran was right to take you away. I won't let you be hurt by me. You should—"

_"Over there!" _The voices of the soldiers were coming closer.

"Damn! I have to run." He let go of her, tossing a short glance in her direction. "Yuuki..._go back_."

But she followed. He raced around the corner of the dark alleyway and into the open street, skirting passersby, ducking in between a group of children and a cart of food, then finally in the direction that Yuuki had entered this place from. She raced behind him all the way.

He was heading toward the stairs.

When they ran through the entrance, the chase was on. The two guards posted at that level started after them, calling others.

Zero ran desperately onward, taking the stairs two at a time, and Yuuki followed suit, unwilling to lose him. She almost tripped when they hit flat ground. The dust had turned to mud in the rain, even though the downpour had abated for the moment. Ignoring the cries of the lower-level guards, Zero continued to run. Instinctively, Yuuki did the only thing she could think to do, and spread her arms out, screaming at the advancing guards not to shoot. She prayed it would take them a moment to come to the conclusion that Kaname's orders would inevitably overrule hers, and put herself in between them and Zero, just in case they did. At the very least, from what she had seen of their actions, they were not willing to invoke Kaname's wrath by injuring her.

Zero raced straight into the stables, tearing open the door next to the one Yuuki had dressed in when she had first come down here. The white horse inside reared up in surprise for a moment, but calmed when it saw who had come.

Zero's expression was severe as he looked back at Yuuki, but it softened when he found her resolutely standing in the doorway, spreading her arms. "You can be so stubborn..." As he spoke, he pulled the saddle and saddle blanket from the wall beside him and placed both on Lily's back with practiced care, completing the action so fast it left Yuuki's head spinning. But there was no time for the bridle. Zero urged the horse forward, jumping effortlessly onto its back just as the first warning shot sounded, and the breathless calls of guards for Zero to dismount and come out with his hands up echoed into the narrow space.

For the third time in recent memory, Yuuki found herself determined to do something, with absolutely no intentions to give up, no matter what got in her way.

"I'm coming with you!" She wasn't begging—not even requesting. She stumblingly placed a foot in the stirrup, gripping Zero's coat and lifting herself onto the horse with much more effort than he had put in to do the same thing.

Zero let out a pent-up breath, murmuring cursewords. He turned around, giving her a long stare, and seemed to finally realize that she wasn't going to give in. "Hold on," he said. The rain picked up as he kicked Lily's sides. She jumped into an immediate run, as if spurred on by his desperation.

The only good thing about him having been a guard came in when they needed to escape through the city's enormous gate—solidly closed against entry or exit. From his mount, he reached the door before anyone else did, and leaned over toward a lever that would not have been visible unless one had known where to look. Yuuki wrapped her arms around his waist to keep him from falling off as he turned it once—hard. The built-in pulleys did the rest, and soon the huge gate began to creak open. As soon as it was open far enough, White Lily ducked her head low, unbidden, and ran through. Sudden rain beat against Yuuki's face, stinging her skin. Her arms gripped Zero's waist, but she still felt like she might be unbalanced at any moment, even though White Lily's stride was long and graceful.

She was cold, scared, and rocketing through a wide open space she'd never seen before, but Yuuki had never felt more free.

* * *

More quickly than she could comprehend, Yori's wrists had been bound behind her back. Their tones threatening stiff retribution, they had told her that she would be brought before Kaname.

Which was why, half an hour later, she was sitting silently in a high-backed chair. From her seat, Yori looked over an impressive view of the courtyard gardens, which were now being bathed in torrential rains. Yori didn't flinch when the door finally opened. Kaname Kuran walked in and took a seat opposite her, staring out at the rain for several moments. Yori's gaze echoed her inner defiance as she waited for him to speak.

"Sayori Wakaba," he finally said, slowly. "Your actions were ill-advised. There is much more going on than you understand."

Just as coolly, Yori replied, "Keeping a good person alive is not ill-advised, in my opinion."

Kaname gave her a straight examination, and nodded. "I apologize for not arriving more quickly. I was caught up on my way here."

Slightly surprised, Yori nodded, accepting the apology.

Kaname spoke again, voice measured. "I didn't mean for Kiryuu to be executed, if that's what you're wondering. However, it was the appropriate front for what I really need to do." His voice wryly said that he didn't mean for Zero to die _immediately. _"However, for Yuuki's sake, I had to keep the truth from her. The less she knows of this, the better for her safety. Unfortunately, she overreacted. And, of course, I didn't foresee your involvement." The Kuran heir seemed slightly annoyed at himself for overlooking these things.

Yori found herself relaxing a little. She found it slightly refreshing to see a little insecurity. It made him seem infinitely more human. "As a servant of the Kuran household, I am bound to obey you," she said.

Kaname nodded, recognizing that she had more to say. "But...?"

"If anything you do ever comes between Yuuki and her happiness, I'm afraid I will do all that is within my power to oppose you."

Kaname smiled softly. "I plan to do no such thing," he assured her. He looked over her for several moments, and then nodded. "I'm quite pleased to see that Yuuki has such a dedicated friend."

The compliment served doubly as a polite dismissal, and Yori stood to her feet. "About these things that I_ 'don't understand'_," she said slowly, "Is there anything I should be on the lookout for?"

Kaname gave her an unwavering stare. "I pray it won't come to that," he replied. "I plan to end it before it can start."

However, even then, he knew things were happening that he could not stop. For Yuuki, for Kiryuu, for him... inevitability drew closer.

* * *

**Notes: **All done with this chapter! At_ last._ Next chapter, I'll be bringing in one of the characters I haven't written yet. (It's a seeecret.) I hope to be able to put a little bit of everyone in, though. **Please Review? **Love and cookies for your thoughts!


	9. Eye of the Storm

/ / **Chapter Eight: **_Eye of the Storm _/ /

**Disclaimer/Notes:** First of all, **you guys are amazing. **Thank you so much for the reviews! Sorry I wasn't able to reply. (_cries_) And I apologize that the update took a little while again! Life rolled me into a ball and tossed me into a few brick walls (well, actually I'm just mostly freaking out about a huge test I'll probably fail, and various other things that involve my imminent future). Since it's been a little busy lately, updates may continue to be every two weeks for a little while. On a brighter note, this chapter is much more light-hearted than the previous ones, due to the introduction of Cross (lol, and you may have begun to wonder where I'd stuffed him). I had an absolutely amazing time of writing Cross, and especially Zero and Yuuki, in this chapter. I hope you're able to enjoy reading it.

* * *

"Where are we going?" Yuuki shouted, somehow making her words audible through the rush of the wind and the uniform clatter of footsteps and rustling leaves.

Zero seemed almost hesitant to acknowledge their destination. "We left our supplies behind back in the city. I know someone who'd be more than happy to lend us anything we need."

"He lives out here?" Yuuki asked. She couldn't recall ever having been outside of the towering city.

"I used to live out here, too," Zero replied, though this part was considerably softer than everything else he'd said.

Yuuki thought for a moment. "How far is it?"

"Not far." Zero urged Lily on, until they were fairly flying through the trees. In the past hour, Yuuki had become much more used to it, so she didn't feel like she was going to fall off and get crushed under the horse's hooves at any second, but it was still surprising, and she gripped tighter to Zero's shirt. Looking ahead through the rain—which had by now turned to a lighter drizzle—with squinted eyes, Yuuki thought she could see something through the trees. She pointed ahead to what must have been at least three miles, where a small village was visible only by spatterings of small houses built on a hill.

"Is that it?" she asked doubtfully, questioning his assessment of _not far._

"No." Zero slowed the horse to a stop, looking back at her. "We're here."

He slid off, then turned around, lifting a hand with a rather embarrassed look on his face.

She gratefully grabbed the offered hand and slid off, wobbling with one foot on the stirrup, then staggering backward and landing, at last, on solid ground.

Once there, she fell unceremoniously onto her butt.

"Owww..." she moaned. "My _everything _hurts." But especially her backside. Her legs, in general, seemed to be protesting at riding so long strewn haphazardly across a jerkily moving object.

She saw suppressed laughter in his gaze as Zero looked down at her. "Graceful," he said, somehow maintaining a straight face and keeping the amusement out of his voice.

"Oh, shut up!" She batted his pants with a muddy hand, and stood to her feet with an audible _hmmph!_

"Don't get yourself into any trouble," Zero said severely, and Yuuki was about to spin on him and complain about the considerable injustices commited upon her butt, and also about the fact that he could have thought her capable of getting into trouble this far out in the woods, but she quickly realized that he was talking to the horse. Sighing, Yuuki started walking.

Zero followed along behind her, taking the lead as they followed a short path through the woods. A small cabin soon became visible. Three log steps led to its entrance, and Zero let out a very large sigh as he walked up to the door and knocked.

A calm voice echoed from somewhere within the house. "Just a moment, please!"

Then came quick footsteps, and the door flew open to reveal an enthusiastic-looking face. "Zero!" cried the cabin's occupant. "I thought you were with Yagari in the city. Did something..." But the man's eyes traveled to the place behind Zero where Yuuki's wildly windblown and rain-dampened hair could be seen sticking out.

"Oh..." said the man. "Oh my _dear_..." He turned to Zero, eyes positively shining, and Yuuki thought that he was perhaps a little deranged. "Is that Yukkie? Is that my little Yukkie!" he said, his voice rising to a high-pitched enthusiasm that made Yuuki inexplicably embarrassed.

Zero put a hand in the old man's face and shoved him backwards. "Invite us in, old man," he said, shoving his way through the door. Yuuki followed, looking around in the dim warmth. It was a comfortable place.

Zero continued pushing until he'd backed the man into the corner on the other side of the room, and whispered something urgently to him. The man nodded and gave Zero a slow smile that seemed to Yuuki to be a little sad.

He finally edged past Zero, walking toward her and extending a hand. "Hello," he said, a gentle smile spreading over his face. "I am Kaien Cross. It's...nice to meet you."

Yuuki extended her hand and it was taken warmly into his. "I'm Yuuki...Kuran," she said. "It's nice to meet you, too."

The man seemed slow to let go of her hand. "Well now!" he said loudly, as though, perhaps, they couldn't hear him well unless he spoke in such deafening tones. "I have stew on the stove. Is anyone hungry?"

"Starving!" Yuuki immediately chirped, wondering where her manners had gone.

Her reaction seemed to affect Cross positively, because he immediately skipped into the kitchen, ladling three bowls full of stew and setting them down. "Thank goodness you came now! I started it this morning, and it just finished up." Smiling, he sat, pulling out a chair for Yuuki as Zero sank familiarly into the only one excluded from the bright light in the kitchen. Yuuki sat, and Zero warned her out of the corner of his mouth to be careful about the stew, since God only knew what Cross had put in it. The man in question seemed completely oblivious to this exchange, and soon placed a loaf of steaming bread onto the table, as well as a small plate of butter.

"Soo..." Yuuki said slowly. "Why do you live so far away from everything? I saw a village up there. I would've thought that it would be very inconvenient to be so secluded."

Cross smiled brightly. "It's not a problem at all! I'm a teacher, you see, in that town. Since many of the children are constantly busy tending the family's crops or working in shops, they don't have time to attend school every day, so I hold a lesson weekly. On Wednesday, actually, which means I'll be heading out tomorrow morning. I also shop on Wednesdays, so it works out fine. I don't mind seclusion anymore."

They ate silently for a while. Yuuki didn't mind the taste of the food, since she was ravenous, but she had to admit that it had a flavor that she could only define as unique. She didn't dare to ask what was in it.

"So, Zero," Cross said. "Tell me what's going on. I would've thought you'd rather die than come to visit me again."

"Just about," Zero replied smoothly. "But when it came to the whole dying thing, I decided I preferred you. If it's all right, we'll come to town with you tomorrow. We need supplies."

"And, pray tell, how do you expect to move around anonymously when you're dragging the Kuran heir along with you?"

Zero gave Yuuki a brief glare. "She wouldn't stay behind," he said.

"Now you wait!" Yuuki said, letting her spoon clatter into her now empty bowl. "Do you really think I was going to let you tromp off in your condition?"

"And you think it's better to carry _you _around, as good as a billboard screaming—_'Apprehend me! I'm a wanted criminal!_'?"

"Well." Yuuki pouted, unable to think of a fast response.

Cross watched with an amused expression on his face. "Oh, this brings back memories," he said. His voice became firmer when he spoke again. "You can both come to town tomorrow if you want, but Zero, you'll need to wear a cloak. It's been a while, but your parents' hair and eyes make you rather recognizable. Yuuki, too. It might be best for you to remain concealed."

She nodded. "May I be excused?" It seemed that Cross had a fire going, and even though she could feel the warmth from where she sat, her still-damp clothes were begging for direct heat.

"Of course."

Yuuki nodded and got up, nearly skipping to the small stove. Coals glowed a very comfortable orange from the small opening in the door, and Yuuki sighed as the simple warmth pervaded her entire body. Spreading her fingers out over the top, she waited until the skin had become warm, then turned her hands around, whistling happily. In the city they'd just left, the castle had always been warm, and she knew that it was because of a system of heated pipes beneath the floors, but there was a certain simple satisfaction to be gained from standing in front of a warm stove, and also a familiarity that she couldn't explain.

Driven by instinct, she left the stove as soon as she was warm, turning into a hall off to the left of the house's front door. She walked down until she found a small, very dusty doorknob.

She turned it.

Inside, the contents of the room lay untouched, so that a thick layer of dust coated almost everything. Under the dust, though, she saw a small bed covered with a pink quilt, and a white-painted nightstand that stood slightly lower on one side.

A hand clasped down on her shoulder, and Cross' soft voice said, "Yuuki."

She looked into the room with a vague sense of deja-vu, but whatever had been lingering in her mind disappeared at the shock she felt when hearing his voice. "You have a daughter?" she asked.

"I had," Cross corrected softly.

Yuuki felt wretched. "I'm so sorry! I didn't think..."

Cross laughed softly. "Oh, no. Don't be. She's not dead. It's just that she moved away quite a long time ago, when she was small, to live with someone else. Really, I only adopted her for a few years, but it felt like a lifetime."

Yuuki looked into the room. "That's a little sad. Do you miss her?"

"Hugely. But she is safe, and I'm happy for that."

Yuuki looked up at the man. Despite her earlier impression that he was a little bit odd, she found herself warming up to him with a growing feeling of respect. "You're a very nice person," she told him. "I'm sure your daughter misses you and loves you very much."

He closed the door to the undisturbed room and herded Yuuki back into the dining room. In words she couldn't hear, Cross whispered, "No, Yuuki... she doesn't. But that's all for the better, I suppose."

* * *

Once they'd finished eating, Yuuki offered to do the dishes, which Cross accepted with an expression of paternal glee. Zero watched as she filled a sink with freshly boiled water and mixed it with cool water, adding in some soap and swishing it until it the bubbles nearly frothed over. He was uncertain about her dish-doing abilities, since she probably hadn't done any for about a decade, but she did them easily, stacking them in orderly little piles beside the sink.

Tension melted visibly from her body as she washed them.

She'd relaxed more since coming in here, he had noticed, but she had still been tense from the moment they'd left, reacting to the slightest provocation. It was nice to see her smiling without the unconscious twinge. He felt himself relaxing, too.

"So," Cross said, and this time, his voice was all business. "I want you to tell me what you're doing here. You may think I don't know you well, but I know you well enough. You wouldn't come back here unless you absolutely had to. Something happened in the capital."

It wasn't a question.

"Yes. I...had a relapse just a few days after an attack," Zero said. He saw Cross stiffen. It didn't bother him too much. He knew that it was bad for the attacks to be coming so close together. "It wasn't too big a deal. I overworked myself, and was injured and distracted. But... this time, something happened. Anyway..." the words froze on Zero's lips, but he forced them out. "Yuuki...saw. I can't say what happened, but I'm pretty sure that Kuran started looking for Yuuki, and followed the trail. He must have pieced everything together. After all, my attempts to hide myself were pretty pathetic. He thinks I'm becoming too much of a risk." A pause. "He may be right."

Cross sighed, glancing in at Yuuki. "And... Yuuki?"

"She knows. She doesn't seem to care, which I think is stupid beyond reason," Zero muttered bitterly.

"But it's just like Yuuki, isn't it?" Cross smiled sadly. "She's changed so much. She's a woman now."

"Her mindless idiocy remained intact," Zero replied.

"I like to think of it as a beautiful ability to accept people, no matter what." There was a dreamy quality in Cross' voice that made Zero cringe. _Cross _certainly hadn't changed a bit.

Zero stepped back a little. "It's going to get her killed."

There was a long pause, during which both of them looked at Yuuki, who was blissfully unaware of their conversation. "She doesn't remember any of it, does she?"

Zero shook his head. "Though I think she subconsciously knows some things. The way she acts sometimes, I could swear..." He smiled a little. "And look how she walks around in this place. Did you see her at the stove?"

Cross laughed. "Yeah."

Yuuki dried her hands on the towel next to the sink and skipped in. "Hey!" she said. "All done."

Cross put a warm hand on top of her head and ruffled her hair enthusiastically, leaving frizzy little knots. Zero gave her a look that said, _better you than me. _Yuuki stuck her tongue out at him. After pointing them to a small extra room, Cross told them that they should sleep if they wanted to be awake for tomorrow's journey, and loaded Zero's arms full of blankets and pillows. He spread them out for Yuuki on the guest bed, and achy and tired, she curled onto them and was almost immediately asleep, despite the fact that the bed was not nearly as soft as the one she had recently left.

The pain that Zero had been consciously pushing back and ignoring all day long—filling its place with much more important things like escaping from half the city's guards—returned and filled the silence of the room.

Since he could not get to sleep, he watched her, taking comfort in the steady rise and fall of her chest, and allowing himself a smile when she muttered and smacked her lips childishly in her sleep, greedily curling into the blankets. Wondering if she was cold, he draped an extra one over her and continued to watch. Violent drafts of cold air whispered about on the floor, so he made a fort out of the remaining blankets, laying them down in a wrapped-up circle and resting on top of them. He folded his arms on the edge of her bed and rested his chin atop them, soothed by the sounds of her breath.

At some point—he couldn't remember when—he fell asleep, and at another point, remembered being woken and told to lay down. He heard her say _Zero _and _silly _and _you're going to catch a cold_, as well as other various words and phrases, some of which, he was sure, were quite critical, but his tired mind didn't bother to compute them.

For the first time in a very, very long time, Zero slept soundly.

* * *

It was fifteen minutes past the time Cross had planned to depart, and though he was grateful to see Zero sleeping, he also had about fifteen children of various ages to teach, and a week's worth of stocking to do. All of that had to be done in a single day—a day which Zero was obliviously sleeping away.

"Okay," he sighed. "You should wake him, Yuuki. I hate to say it, but you are in danger staying here. Both of you. If anyone were to look, they could easily associate me with Zero, and this would be one of the first places they'd look. I'll help you guys out as much as I can, and then I suppose you'll be on your way. Shake him awake if you must. Tell him he's got to be ready twenty minutes ago."

Yuuki nodded and skipped off joyfully to the task of waking Zero up.

She grabbed a pillow and nudged his silver-strewn head with it. "Zerooo..." she said.

There was absolutely no response.

"Wake uuuuup..."

Another nudge, this one done with a sock-clad foot.

He grunted a little and hugged his pillow.

"Zero wake up!" She said, loudly and very quickly. She raised the pillow and whacked him over the head.

He woke up this time, sitting up and looking around with sleep-filled lavender eyes and a case of bedhead for the record books. His hair always seemed to be in such unperturbable order that she found it hilarious. She pointed and laughed breathlessly to the point of crying, unable to explain her reason for waking him until about three minutes later, when she could speak without breaking down into hysterical fits of giggles.

"Cross... said it's time to go," she gasped. "Late. We're late." She tried to straighten her face, but failed miserably. "And brush your hair," she advised before running out. She got as far as the door before breaking down in laughter again.

Ten minutes later, they were all on their way. Zero chose to ride White Lily, but, in interests of her backside, Yuuki took Cross' offer to sit in his wagon. Like he had recommended, both she and Zero wore cloaks. The three-mile ride passed quickly, due to Yuuki's ramblings and constant questions, which Cross was all too enthusiastic to answer. He'd also given a bridle to Zero, and once they arrived in town, Zero apologetically used the reins to tie around a post. The horse gave him an accusing stare, and he impatiently replied,

"I _know _you won't run off. This is a precautin. It isn't much, but it's better than nothing. I don't want to make it too easy for someone to take off with you."

If it hadn't been quite obvious that horses could _not_ understand human speech, Zero might have thought the look on her face was offended and indignant.

"Yeah, I know. You go ahead and give 'em hell if they do." And Zero wished any potential thieves the very best of luck at getting on her back, because she wouldn't be happy about it.

Cross made a quick trip into several stores, buying fruits, vegetables and grains in bulk. He also bought several large bags of sweets, which Yuuki dug into with gusto. Zero waited outside while Cross went in with Yuuki to make his purchases, but on the third trip, Yuuki stayed with him, munching a bag of sweets.

As he stood outside of the door, a woman walked in with about eight children, who seemed to be getting along very well. That alone led Zero to the conclusion that they were not all her own. She stopped jerkily before entering, doing an impressive double-take.

"Oh my God," the woman said. "Zero? Zero Kiryuu?"

He jumped. "Uhh..." was all he could manage to say.

The woman, wide-eyed, urged the children into the store, murmuring, "Go pick a candy, everyone." The children squealed with delight and raced each other through the door. She turned her attention back to Zero. "I'm Rika. I talked with your mother sometimes. I thought... I was sure I had seen you and little Ichiru enough times to recognize you. I—" A pause. "But I thought you were..."

Zero shook his head, motioning for the woman to be quiet. Shaking himself out of momentary speechlessness, he said quickly, "Please don't tell anyone else I'm here."

The woman looked shocked, but then nodded. "I won't. I promise, dear. But if you mean to conceal yourself, I'd pull that hood down a little farther. I know at least six people in this town who'd know you on sight for your hair alone. You look a lot like your father, now," the woman said fondly.

Zero's mouth was dry, so he settled for a nod. "Thank you," he murmured.

The woman looked uncertainly into the store. "I hope you wouldn't mind if ... maybe ... I introduced you to my children? Two of them. They're the boys in there. Four and six, they are. I came into town to bring my older ones to school, but all the mothers and I take turns taking care of the little ones. It's my turn." The woman sighed. "I really needed to go to the butcher's today, but I don't dare to with so many children in tow."

"For how long?" Yuuki asked.

The woman looked up as if noticing Yuuki for the first time. "Oh! Thirty minutes or so, dear. I guess I can do it next time I get into town."

"We could—" Yuuki stopped, casting a tentative glance at Zero. "Couldn't we?"

"We what?" Zero asked.

"You know... watch them for a while."

The woman clapped a hand to her mouth. "I couldn't ask you to!" she said. "There are just so many. I wouldn't want to bother you. It's really too much."

Zero received a sharp nudge to the ribs, but Yuuki continued to smile. "No, really," she said. "We'd love to." Another nudge. "_Wouldn't we?_"

Zero gave the woman a helpless glance. "Uhh, yeah. Absolutely."

"You're such a sweetie!" the woman named Rika crooned. "Oh, thank you so much. Let me pay for their treats and I'll just be a bit, I promise."

Zero gave Yuuki a slack-jawed stare. "We were supposed to remain anonymous!"

Yuuki snorted. "She recognized _you_. It's not my fault."

"You didn't have to get us up to taking care of a huge load of kids!" Zero groaned.

Yuuki pouted. "I like kids," she said.

Less than a minute later, Zero found eight wide-eyed children staring up at him.

The Royal Guard was undoubtedly going to put out a warrant for his arrest and execution, and here he was taking care of preschoolers.

This was just wonderful.

* * *

**Notes: **Hmm... so I actually meant to end this chapter in a much more direct and abrupt way, but I couldn't help it. After all the darkness and drama of the past few chapters, I thought a little light-heartedness would be good, before things fall back into craziness. Next chapter Zero and Yuuki will be dealing with a gaggle of children for just a little while. Sorry. But don't worry, I promise that there's actually a point to this. Sort of. **Please Review?**


	10. Insubstantial Recollection

/ / **Chapter Nine:**_ Insubstantial_ _Recollection _/ /

**An Important Note: **(Of rambling apologies for my own stupidity.) Gack, I'm _hugely sorry_. If you ended up reading something that made **no sense at all, **it's probably because I accidentally uploaded the parts I had of the next chapter, which are fragmented and unedited and absolutely terrifingly unfinished. I realized this mistake pretty quickly, thank goodness, and screamed like a girl (which I am) and deleted and reuploaded the chapter. I apologize if you saw the incompleted _horror_ that is the next chapter. I can be really stupid sometimes. I deleted and reuploaded the chapter because if I'd just exported it, the site may have taken up to an hour to show the correct chapter. Unfortunately, this also means that some people might have gotten two alerts. I'm very sorry. I owe you guys my firstborn. Seriously.

**Disclaimer/Notes: **So I'll admit it; the primary purpose of this chapter is to be a little bit insane. After so much dreary drama and drudgery in previous chapters, it really seemed like it was time for a brief break. Though I swear that this chapter actually has a purpose. In absolute honesty, it does. I think. But for the most part, I just had to write Zero dealing with children. More Cross this chapter, too. I will try to bring some more characters into the story in upcoming chapters. Shiki and Rima, definitely! And probably more of the Night Class characters—who I guess aren't actually Night Class characters in this story.

* * *

After they had stared at him for almost an entire minute, it dawned on Zero that perhaps he should...say something.

"Umm...hi."

A child, one of the smallest, tugged at his pant leg. "I need to pee." Her eyes were huge and milk-chocolate brown. They reminded him of Yuuki's.

He wondered why the girl was telling him this. It wasn't as if he could _help_ her. "That's good," he said lamely.

"I need to _peeee_," the girl repeated, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Yuuki had waited enough at Zero's expense, and stepped forward. "Come on, little one, let's find you a bathroom," she said, offering the tiny child a smile.

"Okay!" The girl immediately warmed up to Yuuki. Trotting into the sweets shop behind Yuuki, she immediately jumped into animated conversation. This, of course, left Zero with the remaining seven. All of them, except for one, were boys. Though he had undoubtedly been one at some point in his life, Zero could not think for the life of him how he was supposed to deal with kids. What did they _like? _

The single remaining girl poked Zero's leg. It seemed to be the only place they could safely reach. She looked remarkably like the girl Yuuki had just walked off with, but seemed to be a couple years older. The two were probably siblings. "You look funny," she said matter-of-factly. "Kind of like my baby brother Mike—he's two—when he's trying to poop. My mom says that if you frown too much, your face will freeze like that. Like...forever."

Zero was going to kill Yuuki for this.

"Hey!" said one of the boys. "Do you live here?"

This was something Zero could answer. "No. I used to."

This prompted a whole bunch of new questions, though they all got mixed together since they were spoken at the same time. He was able to make out _Where do you live, then? _and _Was your mommy sad when you moved out, 'cause my mommy was sad when my brother moved out... _and also something like, _Can I have more candy, please?_

He chose to answer the first. "I live in the city." He pointed to the towering mass of gray stone in the distance.

"Oooh..."

The boys seemed to find this interesting, but the remaining girl said, "My mom said the city is a dirty and scary place."

"Your mom would be right, then," Zero said.

The boys found this even cooler.

"But how'd you get here," one of them asked. "It's like...a billion miles."

Zero had a feeling that their sense of distance was very skewed. Of course, as a child, everything seemed far.

"It wasn't very long. I rode on a horse."

The girl giggled. "I love horsies! I wanna see it, is it here?"

Zero opened his mouth, but quickly closed it. Their mothers would not be happy if Lily bit a chunk out of their hands. But he was also extremely bad at saying no to those big chocolate eyes that looked way too much like Yuuki's.

"Pleeeeeease? Oh please please please?" The girl said. Zero was sure that the pint-sized amalgam of everything that was adorable was completely aware of her charm.

_No, _his mind said reasonably. _Not in a million years would I want to bear the wrath of a gang of angry moms. _But his lips said, "Okay, then."

Yuuki came out almost at that same moment. She took one look at Zero's face. "Is something wrong?"

Zero gritted his teeth and cursed her cute little eyes. "The kids want to see Lily," he said.

"And you're taking them?" Yuuki asked.

Zero scowled, which Yuuki obviously took to mean yes. She bent down until she was eye-level with the smallest girl. "Would you like to go see a pretty horsie?"

The girl nodded vigorously, and scampered along behind the group of children. Zero pulled the hood of his cloak down, as Rika had recommended. They walked off to the edge of town again. "Stay here," Zero urged them once they had arrived. "I have to make sure she's ready..." _to be overtaken by a herd of stampeding children._

He stepped forward, and was sure that she scowled at him. His eyes apologized to her, and she huffed air up her nose, as if to say, _What is it now?_

"You can come on," Zero said grudgingly. Then he turned to Lily. "If I see your teeth or hooves inching toward any one of them, I will personally make the rest of your equine life a living hell."

The children staggered through the damp foliage to find the post that Lily had been tied to.

"Don't get close," Zero warned. He didn't dare to say why, since he was certain that some of the boys would take it as a challenge.

The girls fell all over themselves. "She's so... white!" The older, brown-eyed one said.

"Nice choice of words," Zero said dryly.

But the girl was too busy overflowing with enthusiasm. Lily, sensing the envious, adoring glances, raised her head a little bit pridefully.

"Can... can I pet her?" the smallest girl—the one who had needed to pee—asked.

Zero glanced at the horse. "Um ... she's a little moody," he said. "It might be best not to."

"I'm not afraid," the tiny girl said serenely. "Here, horsie."

Zero couldn't help smiling a little at the girl's reckless fearlessness.

"What's her name?"

"She's White Lily," Zero replied. "Shall we see if she'll let you pet her?" He was too soft. He really was.

"Yes!" The girl said. "Oh, yes please!"

He picked the girl up under the arms of her frilly white dress, and she extended a baby-like hand to Lily's head. She patted between the horse's eyes, running her tiny fingers down until they touched the velvety nose. The girl giggled. Zero sighed, and straightened his mouth so as not to show how pleased he was that the girl liked Lily, and vice versa. Or, at the very least, Lily was tolerating the girl.

He let the girl down after a few moments, setting her small feet gently onto the trodden leaves. He looked around just in time to see one of the older boys reaching out to pull on Lily's flicking white tail. Immediately stepping in front of the child, who looked to be about six, Zero fixed him with a glare to melt steel. After trying and failing to muster a return glare, the boy blinked and ran back. Yuuki, who seemed to be a magnet to the younger ones, was busy with three boys who seemed overly interested in the sticks and rocks on the ground. Yuuki was assisting them in their hunt for oddly-shaped stones.

A few of the boys wanted to ride on Lily, but Zero wasn't sure he could take the stress.

If he had learned anything worthwhile out of this whole messed-up encounter, it would have to be that he was _never _having kids when he got married.

After a moment, he caught his mistake, forcing the thoughts away from himself with bitterness. Could he actually have been entertaining the idea that he could live long enough to do things like that? And even if he did live long enough... the thought was laughable.

"Let's go back to the sweets shop," Yuuki proposed, and no one disagreed, though the boy tried to get a parting shot at White Lily's tail. She flicked it in the boy's face and sent him running. Zero was surprised that she hadn't kicked the kid, and respected the self-control she had displayed. Lily was extremely odd, sometimes, for a horse.

But he supposed that it was fitting, since Zero wasn't exactly a walking advertisement for normalcy himself. He walked along behind Yuuki, taking up the rear and watching out for the little girl, who had glued herself to his leg and was talking animatedly about a huge doggie she had at home and how it was much fluffier than a horse. Zero half-listened, letting his mind wander.

"My God, there you are!"

Zero looked up abruptly to see the face of Rika, the simple features of her face tight with worry.

Shocked at the terror in her voice, Zero rushed to apologize. "I'm really sorry. They wanted to see my horse, and..."

It really had been a horrible idea.

"No!" Rika said. "That's fine. It's just—follow me. Follow me."

Zero, Yuuki and the children all followed in a straight line until they were standing in between two of the small shops. The space was filled with impenetrable shadow and the smells of baking bread. Rika looked back and forth between Zero and Yuuki's silhouetted faces. "My husband was in the capital, and was supposed to get home tonight, but he came early. Apparently there's a search going on. My husband was questioned before leaving." She paused, as if questioning the soundness of her choice to tell them these things. "They're looking for you," she whispered, "and they're going to search the towns closest to the capital in order to find you. I guess I might be really stupid to tell you this, but I can't just let you be found. You should get away from here."

Zero felt a rush of dread at her words, but also a dry sort of resignation. They were coming. He'd always known they would. "Thank you," he said softly.

Rika bit her lip and gestured for the children to come back to her side. "I really have to get going. So much to do." She offered a fleeting smile. "Good luck. And thanks for watching the children."

One of said children spoke up. It was the smallest girl, and she had been listening intently. "You in twubble?" she spoke curiously around the thumb wedged into her mouth, and stared up up at Zero expectantly.

"Umm..." _How, exactly, was he supposed to answer this? _

He didn't need to, though. After a moment of thought, the girl rearranged the thumb in her mouth in order to speak properly, and said, "I promise I won't tell anyone anything. Promise."

Zero gave her a small smile. "Thank you," he said again.

"You're not a bad person," the girl said slowly. "So I won't tell."

Zero nodded to Yuuki and directed her around the back of the shop, heading to the one they'd been at when Rika had approached. If Cross wasn't there, he surely wouldn't be far. The girl popped the thumb out of her mouth in time to wave with both hands, and that was the last Zero saw of them as he turned quickly around a corner. He and Yuuki wandered in the damp darkness behind the shops until a familiar back entrance caught his eye. Pausing, he gestured for Yuuki to follow, and turned into the alley between the two small shops. Luckily, Cross was still inside, and as soon as he saw their faces, he rushed to pay and asked if he could please borrow the storeroom for a moment. The store owner graciously agreed, and Cross ushered them inside.

"Explain," he said simply.

And Zero did, speaking quietly and quickly into the dim silence.

"Oh, dear..." Cross said once there was silence again. Solemnly, he removed the small spectacles over his eyes, polishing the glass. "I was hoping that it would take them longer." His eyes moved to Zero's, suddenly solemn. "Zero..."

He saw the worry in Cross' gaze, but didn't bother to address it. "Don't worry. They won't harm Yuuki."

Cross smiled, but it wasn't one of the bright ones he had displayed for Yuuki on her arrival. It was tinged with a sad sort of hopelessness. "Good luck, then. I know you'll keep her safe, Zero. I feared that this would happen, so I did some shopping while you were gone. I'm afraid I'm sad that this is all I can do, but take this with you. And be safe," Cross said. He passed a small canvas string-tied sack into Zero's hands. "Take care of yourself."

Zero seemed to think that was vaguely amusing. "I always do, don't I?" he asked dryly. "But... thank you."

Cross turned his attention to Yuuki. "Oh, my dear girl..." Without warning, he wrapped his arms around her in a gentle embrace. "It was wonderful to see you. You've grown so big and so kind and beautiful."

Yuuki gave him a look of gentle doubt. "It sounds like you know me," she said lightly.

"Didn't you know, dear?" Cross smiled. "I was a knight to the royal family a very long time ago. I retired before your birth, but... I had the fortunate opportunity to meet you again. You may not remember."

Yuuki smiled. "I'm sorry," she said. Wasting a moment on contemplation, she then leaned forward and gave the chairman a brief embrace. It felt somehow familiar. "We'll see you again, right?"

Cross smiled. "I hope so, Yuuki. I really do hope so."

A word snaked through her defenses and lingered uncertainly on the verge between blackness and consciousness. "You... remind me of someone," she said.

Cross smiled. "Really? May I ask who?"

Yuuki sighed, feeling that it was closer than ever before, but still too far to grasp. "I don't remember."

Zero took Yuuki's hand and led her to the loading entrance in the back. "Goodbye, Cross." he said cursorily.

Cross waved a little sadly. "Keep out of trouble, you two."

Yuuki was surprised at how Zero reacted to the words. His expression turned from shock to a complacent contentment. "Don't worry," he said softly, in a voice that sounded like it had said the same words to the very same warning hundreds of times before. "We won't."

He opened the door, pulling her through, and the last thing she saw of Kaien Cross, one-time guard to the Royal Family and temporary teacher, was a sad smile that seemed to speak mutely into the silence.

Zero released her hand once they were outside, but she continued to follow him.

"We have to get Lily, then we can cross the brook outside of this town and go Northwest from there, through the woods. It'll lower our chances of being found."

They followed the dark back-street behind the small row of shops until they arrived at the end of it, where Lily was tied to a post near the path that led into the town. Zero solemnly untied her, and the pure white horse seemed to understand his mood in an almost telepathic way. She allowed both Zero and Yuuki to mount without fuss, and Zero pet her neck for a few moments before urging her onward.

* * *

Lily refused to move once they entered the clearing. The brook that Zero had spoken of wove through it. "Probably thirsty," Zero said. He and Yuuki got off of Lily's back and allowed her to move to the water. She held her nose above it for a few moments before deciding that it was safe to drink.

For the first time, Yuuki looked around. Like so many things in this town, the brook invoked feelings of familiarity. Earlier, with the children, Yuuki had watched as the older girl settled down next to one of the boys and bickered about which rocks and fallen leaves were prettier, and Yuuki had felt a warm sense of déjà vu envelop her. She hated and loved how this town had cried out to her senses. Sighing, she readjusted her attention on the scenery. It was a beautiful place—an opening in the foliage where long green grass grew thick until the very edge of a small creek, where clear water moved in a crystal blanket over time-smoothed stones. The smell of wildflowers teased at her senses. Yuuki walked to the edge of the water without thinking about it, and slipped her shoes off, dipping her toes into the clear running water.

_"Yuuki..."_

The words echoed clearly to her, and she turned even though she somehow knew that they had not been spoken in this time. In this place, yes, but not this time.

Yuuki's memories teased her with the slow words that had been spoken somewhere in an indeterminate past. _"Yuuki... if you keep it up like that..." _

Zero moved from behind, walking closer. "If you keep it up like that, Yuuki, you'll fall in."

Yuuki's fingers twisted into the grass, and suddenly she saw tiny bare feet dipping into the water, then walking in it, following its flow until it went up to her waist, following...following. "I know this place," she whispered.

_"Follow me, Yuuki." A pale, slender hand twining into hers; a dry sigh that tried to hide his gentle happiness. A snatch of silver hair in sunlight—of unnaturally vivid lavender eyes filled with mischievous intent. _

_Sunlight, vivid sunlight, and a breeze that sent ruffling tree-leaf shadows dancing over his face._

_Zero._

_Zero._

_Zero..._

"You were here," she said, but the words only passed her lips in a reverent whisper. As if from floodgates long cracked but broken only now, the memories poured through, falling in fragments of remembrace, returning vividly with smells and sounds and sights she had smelled and heard and seen a very long time ago. The aroma of baking bread, the sound of laughter—his, hers... someone else's—and the sight of faces. Too many faces.

"Yuuki," he said.

How had she never heard it before? How had she never recognized that the way he said it now was just like he'd said it back then? Yuuki couldn't bring herself to reply. It was too hard to comprehend. "How...?" she said. "The castle. I was... in the castle. I couldn't have... My family..."

Zero sat on the bank, far enough away from her that she had to concentrate to hear his voice. "You'll remember. I'm sorry, Yuuki, but you'll remember it all. You... for a time... lived here, once. In this place. And I knew you."

Yuuki closed her eyes and let tears slip silently from them. It was as if a fragment of her life had been returned to her, but it was still gapingly incomplete. Dark memories paced around the edges of her consciousness, threatening to break through. Too much. It was far too much to comprehend at once. She looked at Zero, shocked to realize that the face in front of her was the same one she had seen in that indeterminate past. Her mind layered memories over the present landscape, and all she could think was that he had changed so much. He'd grown. It tore at her heart to compare his expression back then to his expression now. Time had cruelly worn at his features, adding too many years to his sad violet eyes. He smiled when he caught her looking at his face.

"I'm sorry, Yuuki. Perhaps it would've been better for you not to remember. There's a lot...before...and after...that I wish you didn't have to remember."

"Zero," she said. And it was the sound of a voice ten years old, asking him to teach her how to hold a sword, begging him to keep a secret, or to hold her hand while she balanced on the edge of an old log.

It was a voice he had never been able to say no to. Zero got up and sat closer to her. "Yuuki," he said softly. He seemed ready to say more, but his mouth closed when Yuuki leaned tiredly against his shoulder, closing her eyes and welcoming the blackness and the familiarity. "It's all right, Yuuki," he said, voice soft, barely audible, but somehow completely clear. Tentatively, haltingly, he put an arm around her, stilling the trembling of her body.

It was enough. It was enough for her.

* * *

**Notes: **I'm going to be eighteen tomorrow. Help! **I don't wanna!** Tomorrow I'll officially be older than Zero. It feels odd. Though I know I can't complain. Lol, but in other news... Wow... I had trouble with this chapter. It was a deadly challenge to my writing capabilities. The easiest part to write was the bit with Cross. He's such a cool character, tweaky and bipolar and just so wonderfully fun to portray. The more I try to understand him, the more I like him. Writing Yuuki and Zero near the end was the hardest for me, but also the most satisfying. How could a person react to the sudden remembrance of a life they didn't realize they'd ever had? How would that affect their interaction with the people they used to know? I think I killed my brain, but in the absolute best way possible. I hope this was all right! Any thoughts would be hugely appreciated.


	11. This Exquisite Nightmare

/ / **Chapter Ten: **_This Exquisite Nightmare _/ /

**Disclaimer/Notes: **Finally, Yuuki's memories! I'm so glad I can drag the rusty old things out of my mind and put them into the story. Also, the 'r' key (and a few other keys) on the computer I'm typing on have proven to be a little stubborn, so please forgive any missing letters, though I've tried to catch as many as I can. On another note, I'm glad that the release date for the next chapter is getting closer, because the latest chapter's lack of Zero made me sad. I desperately need my monthly dose of Zerooo...

* * *

**Warning: **This chapter reveals the existence and partial background of a character that is introduced in chapter 29 of the manga. Since this story is AU, the circumstances are hugely different, and any spoilers are relatively minor, but I wanted to leave a note for people not caught up with the manga.

* * *

"Yuuki...?"

There wasn't any time to waste in getting away from this place, but Zero couldn't make himself move. Her head still rested on his shoulder, and the fingers of one, small hand wrapped loosely around his arm, as if to make sure he was there and real beside her. A careful glance allowed him to see that her eyes were now open. "Yuuki," he said softly. "Are you ready?"

He'd give her as much time as she needed. He'd be a shoulder to lean on, or a distraction to keep her mind away from the devastating rush of memories. Zero Kiryuu had decided long ago that, for Yuuki's sake, he would be anything.

She stood to her feet slowly, staggering for a hold as if unsure of the ground she walked on. Her eyes gazed not ahead, but somewhere back into her memories, and Zero took hold of her elbow so that she didn't fall into the creek.

"I'm ready," Yuuki replied in a whisper.

Zero nodded and summoned Lily, helping Yuuki onto her back first, and then climbing on in front of her. He wished that there was time to allow her to rest. "Hold on," he told her. Complying with vigor, Yuuki wrapped her small arms around his waist—tightly, as if grasping to any memento of the present she could reach. Zero nudged Lily into a run, and Yuuki held, if possible, tighter. The rustle of wind-blown leaves joined with the gentle sounds of bowing wheat from the fields they whipped by. Somehow, through the noise, Zero could still hear her breath. And her _voice—_when she spoke, he heard nothing else.

"Zero... I remember when I first met you," she said slowly.

"Shh," he replied, and the sound of his voice rumbled against the cheek she pressed to his back. "Don't think about anything right now, Yuuki."

But her memories spun backwards into the darkness of _before. _A flash of terror and blood-strewn memories flashed over her eyes, and she held tighter—tighter, trying to keep the memories away, even though she wanted them so badly. But, as inevitable as a rushing storm, they came, washing her view of the present away into a pounding blackness.

_Yuu..._

The fragmented word echoed into her mind.

"_Yuuki-sa—"_

She willed the voice away, aware, somehow, that giving in would only hurt her. But give in she did, and she fell headlong into swirling, tormented fragments of memory.

_"Yuuki-sama," said a voice, but it wasn't Kaname, and it wasn't Zero. __It wasn't one she'd ever been very familiar with, but at least it was comforting. "It's not far from here."_

_Yuuki swung her feet, which didn't go very far over the edge of the long, plush seat. Wide eyes swung back and forth, young eyes that had seen too much and to little at the same time. Her view of the velvet surroundings bounced and jiggled._

_She was in a carriage._

_Warmth encompassed her hand. "You'll be safe soon," said the same soft, unfamiliar voice. Yuuki looked at its owner. _

_A uniform. The person was maybe twenty, with a no-nonsense short haircut and big brown eyes that were the same color of his hair. Kind eyes. But it was no one she knew. He was a guard. Part of the royal guard, if his uniform was any indicator._

_Everything was calm, but an unidentifiable worry niggled at Yuuki's mind. She didn't want to leave the castle. She didn't want to leave Kaname-sama. But if he said that this was best for her, then he was right, wasn't he? Yuuki nodded firmly to herself, bouncing vivid red-brown curls against her face. Kaname-sama had done up her hair very special for today. Then he'd kissed her on the cheek and told her that he'd be back for her as soon as it was safe._

"I promise," _he had said into her ear._

_And Yuuki believed him. So here she was, in a nondescript carriage leading her out of the capital she'd always known. With each clomping step the horse-drawn vehicle took, she moved farther away from familiarity._

_"It's the only way I can keep you safe," he had told her. "I won't let what happened to Mother and Father happen to you, Yuuki. Never. I swear it won't be long."_

_Yuuki was jarred sharply by the sound of one of the horse's frantic whinnies. A soft cry uttered from the mouth of the carriage's driver, and then he was oddly silent, and the carriage was moving in a direction it shouldn't have moved. Yuuki heard the sound of branches slapping against the side of the closed carriage as the horses ran wildly in the wrong direction._

_"What's wrong?" Yuuki asked. "What's wrong?"_

_The soldier gripped at a weapon that Yuuki hadn't known he was carrying, and in the way that children do, she realized that these men had come on this trip expecting to be attacked. Oddly, though, Yuuki could not bring herself to feel any fear. Kaname would keep her safe._

_Kaname always did._

_The carriage jolted to a violent and unnatural stop. A scream of surprise uttered from Yuuki's lips as the guard wrapped his arms around her, instinctively carrying out the job for which he had been trained since childhood. The one and only rule in his job was that his life was merely to be lived as a shield. The more violent your death, the longer you were remembered. And that was all you could hope for; to be remembered._

_"Yuuki-sama, sit tight, okay?" the guard said. The worry showed clearly on his face. The carriage had been flanked by two other vehicles, both of which had been filled with guards. Now, thrown off-course, they were alone. Without even trying, Yuuki heard the sounds of fighting—screams and clashes and roughly muttered swearwords—and smelled a bittersweet scent that set her extremely perceptive senses on edge. _

_She was suddenly, achingly afraid without knowing why._

_"I don't like this..." she said. "Please, can't we go—"_

_The curtain over the door was ripped away, and Yuuki screamed as the coldest gaze she'd ever laid eyes upon tore into her soul. _

_"Hello, Princess," the voice said, perversely happy amidst the sounds of death and battle. "Hello, Yuuki, darling." Differently-colored eyes crinkled in a smile._

_The guard, young though he was, moved himself closer in front of Yuuki. "I won't let you take her!" he said, putting his body in front of hers and brandishing a short blade._

_"You won't?" The man laughed. "How bold. Can't you see what I am?" Vivid rings of color flashed maliciously around the edges of his eyes. "You humans stand not the slightest chance."_

_The strong wood of the door splintered with the tender force of his push, and he moved closer._

"No..." Yuuki murmured, desperately pulling herself back to the present. The sound of Zero's breaths and Lily's hooves battering receptive ground filtered through her senses, present only for a moment before fading quickly into the darkness.

The part of Yuuki that was conscious of the fact that this was all a bad, bad dream fought madly to surface, to wake up—to escape from the forceful battering of memories, but she failed, and all she could do was to hold tighter to Zero's waist, whimpering weakly as the memories dragged her back into the blood-tainted past.

_"Come, Yuuki," coaxed the honey-sweet poison of the intruder's voice._

_"I won't let—!" But the young guard's voice cut off in a cruel gurgling sound, and Yuuki felt thick, hot warmth bathing her. The overwhelming smell of metal assaulted her senses._

_"Move," said the cruel intruder, and he pulled the motionless guard's body away from Yuuki. In the sudden light, she could see that the liquid was red, soaking her hands and dress with slick shininess. It was terrifying and bitter and sweet-smelling, and somehow far too familiar._

_"Hello, Dear. Let's see that beautiful little face of yours, shall we?" A quick flick of his white sleeve cleared a path through the blood over Yuuki's face, and the man smiled. Cold, cold hands gripped at her wrist, urging her forward. "Much better. Now, shall we go?"_

_"Ah... no...!" Yuuki whispered._

_"Absolutely not," said a calm voice. _

_The voice of her savior._

_Yuuki screamed from within the carriage, putting all her terror and hope into the syllables. "Kaname!" _

_He came, he came, he came. _

_Silent tears etched paths throught the scarlet liquid on her face._

_"Yes, Yuuki," Kaname said. "I'm sorry I didn't arrive sooner." Kaname's voice went suddenly, frighteningly cold. "Rido," he whispered. "I'll kill you."_

_The jovial guest turned away from Yuuki. "You must have forgotten your position, sweet nephew," Rido's voice dripped with sweet poison._

_Kaname lunged forward, and Rido shot his left hand through the door to grab the dead guard's blade, lifting it just in time to block Kaname's attack._

_"Feisty today, aren't you?" Rido hissed through gritted teeth. Kaname forced his own blade harder against Rido's, until the dangerously sharp metal shuddered less than an_ _inch from Rido's neck. Rido slid the metal upward and ducked away from Kaname's swing with inhuman agility._

_Blades clashed voilently, over and over again, with such speed and force that no human eyes could have possibly followed them._

_"Yuuki," Kaname called. "Get out of the other door and run!"_

_She nodded, unable to speak, and opened the opposite door with shuddering hands. Once it was open, she staggered out, falling to the ground on strengthless legs._

_"Go, Yuuki!"_

_She forced herself upright and ran in the opposite direction, looking back at what was quickly becoming a heated battle. With a speed and grace that would have better suited a dance than a fight, Kaname and Rido ducked around each other until Kaname drew Rido's blood with a sharp, decisive slice. Yuuki turned away and ran onward. _

_She raced up through the dew-streaked foliage that slapped at her arms and face and legs, up the soft dirt, and then to the road, where the two guard vehicles were empty, most of their former occupants lying dead on the ground. Blood streaked everything, as if this place had been drawn from a grotesque horror film. Yuuki saw a few men standing, and turned to them, ready to scream for help, but upon seeing their faces, she knew that she could not stop. The men looked at her with madly staring eyes, and she knew that these were the ones who had caused the dizzying carnage laid out before her. _

_They were not slow; each movement was loose and agile and fast. The mad glow of insanity and the calculated, numb looseness of a mind long lost caused shudders to roll through Yuuki's body._

_All she could do was run._

_She did. _

_They followed._

* * *

"Yuuki!"

Warm hands.

_No. Let go. Please let go of me..._

"Yuuki, wake up!"

In a detached sort of way, she realized that the tone she heard in that voice was fear, stark and gut-wrenching. Confused, Yuuki drifted. Shouldn't she be the one who was afraid?

"Come _on. _C'mon, Yuuki, please..."

Her eyes seemed inclined to open, and she didn't resist. Blinking flutteringly, Yuuki found herself staring up into a pair of extremely frantic violet eyes. As soon as they met hers, she heard a heavy, shuddering sigh of relief. The arms went a little tighter around her.

_Zero. That was Zero. _Yuuki realized distantly that they were in the middle of the grove of trees, on the ground. Looking around, she could see Lily tethered against a tree. "I had... a bad dream," she said slowly. The memories of it brought the burn of impending tears to her eyes. "I was so scared..." The tears fell silently, unstoppable. Memories, more memories. "I saw my mom die," she said, and even though she didn't understand why she said it, she knew it was true. Sometime before all of _that_, she had. That was why Kaname had sent her to safety. Because of that man. It had all been because of him, hadn't it?

"I know," Zero whispered.

"Then I had to go away from home, and... there was a carriage, and there was so much blood, and—I—"

A remarkably cold finger pressed gently to her lips. "I know, Yuuki. Don't think about it."

She tried to banish the memories. "Why did we stop?"

Zero's voice was awkward when he spoke. "You were screaming," he told her.

It was clear from the embarrassed and still-fearful look in his eyes that she'd shocked him badly. "I'm really sorry."

"Don't apologize."

Yuuki looked around at her surroundings, sitting up and slipping out of his arms. He awkwardly relinquished his grip on her.

"Have we been here before?" she asked. She had the odd feeling that if she stood up and walked for just a few minutes, she'd find a fallen-down tree that she could climb on, and if she looked through the trees just right, there would be a house.

"Yes." Zero didn't bother to elaborate.

"There's a house." It was halfway between statement and question.

There was a pause, this time. "Mine," Zero spoke. "It's my family's. It... _was_."

And Yuuki might have told him that she was sorry, but both of them knew how little those helpless platitudes meant. Being sorry about something could never, ever stop it from happening. Almost without thinking, she leaned closer to him, until her head was nearly resting on his chest. It was funny how she couldn't keep herself from apologizing for _something. _"I'm sorry you had to stop here," she whispered. Ghosts of happier memories in this place flickered through her mind, misty and distant—very nearly alien—but becoming rapidly clearer in her mind. They all rushed by in a colorful blur until they ended abruptly with the inevitable agony and tragedy and change that had occured in this place.

"Don't," Zero said. "I wasn't going to keep going with you like that. It was my choice, anyway."

Yuuki sighed and inhaled the warmth of her nearness to him. Suddenly the nightmares of her past didn't seem so bad. A realization hit her, a continuation to the way those horrible memories had faded away. "That day... when I was running... you found me," she said slowly.

"A lot of people found you," he said. "My parents, Cross, Yagari..."

"No. You found me first," she said.

She remembered gasping exhaustedly in desperation as she ran along the road, until even the trees and foliage seemed to be closing in on her, until her steps no longer kept her ahead of the hungry stares and the angry glowing eyes of her maddened pursuers. As clear as if she were seeing it on the day it had happened, she remembered the pain of resigning herself to death, of realizing that Kaname could be dead and she would soon be, too, forever ending the Kuran line. And she remembered the sudden sunlit glow of metal and a graceful swinging slash, followed by the sickening sound of a blade hitting flesh and bone. Her attacker had fallen into the dirt, writhing in pain, clawing the ground, and Yuuki had sat atop dew-dampened leaves, staring in shock.

_Wasn't she supposed to be dead now? _had been her only conscious thought.

_She remembered a hand reaching out to her, pulling her upright. His grip was firm, but the fingers curled reassuringly around hers, and she wondered in her haze of confusion how the fingers that wielded a blade so brutally could be so gentle. "It's not dead," the boy had said with contempt. Pale silver hair fell around a slender face etched with dislike for the fallen creature. "Follow me."_

_It had taken only a moment for more of the once-human monsters to fall in behind them, but it had thankfully taken only moments after that for her mysterious savior to pull her out of the woods, where a carriage had pulled off to the side of the road. A man stepped out. Honey-colored brown hair fell loosely around his eyes and down his neck, but his serious expression contrasted with the gentle gaze in his eyes. "Yuuki, darling. Kaname said you'd be coming." Yuuki felt relaxation sweep through her at Kaname's name. "I am Kaien Cross. I'm an old friend of your mother's. Come in. You'll be safe here."_

_The boy beside her coaxed her into the carriage, where a woman and man introduced themselves as his parents. Yuuki realized absent-mindedly that the boy had hair colored a similar shade to his father's. Scared, confused and exhausted by terror and exertion, she fell tiredly to the side with her head leaning comfortably into the boy's chest. Her sleep-weighted eyes, partially open, saw only her savior's unnaturally vivid violet gaze, obscured by strands of silver hair._

_She didn't see kindness in those eyes—not really—but what she saw wasn't hatred, either. There was a little bit of everything, with confusion and nervousness mixed in. Yuuki imagined that his eyes were probably reflecting her own emotions. His face turned pink at her lengthy examination, and the boy said gruffly, "It's okay to sleep."_

_Nodding, Yuuki let her eyes close, gripping the cloth of his shirt so that she wouldn't wake in the dark. If this whole thing was a dream, she didn't want it to fade right now._

_Terror set in with the onset of the darkness of sleep, and she opened her eyes sharply to the inquisitive gaze of the silver-haired boy._

_"Don't disappear," she whispered desperately. "Please don't go."_

_He shifted, surprised, and looked down into her fear-stricken eyes. "Don't worry," he said. "I won't."_

_She paused and contemplated on whether or not she should trust this boy. After several long moments, she nodded and said, "That's good." She nestled up and twined her fingers into his shirt, allowing her eyes to close. The darkness of sleep washed over her again, but this time she let it._

_And she slept deeply._

* * *

"So ... we were invited to the Hanabusa family's banquet, though we'll really only be there for appearance's sake, I think. It'll be boring, but there will be food." Rima Touya kicked her feet up a little as she walked.

Her footsteps echoed impressively up to the high ceiling of the castle hallway. The blank expression remained on her face, and the beautiful monotone lull never left her voice. Doll-like and lovely, daughter of one of the higher-class nobles, she and her friend Senri Shiki were often invited to social events. The two were starkly contrasting in looks, but the pair was well-known, and a banquet wasn't a banquet unless the hiers to the Touya and Shiki households were there.

Shiki's mother had been a social butterfly, dream-like and ethereal, fluttering everywhere and gracing everyone with her infectious dreamy happiness. Though there was no dreamy happiness to Shiki, he was expected to do much the same in the social circle.

"Are you listening? I said food," Rima said, poking the boy beside her in the arm.

"Rima?" The boy's head lifted suddenly. "Oh. Sorry. That's interesting." There was a short pause. "Food is good."

"You've been acting strangely lately," Rima said, but no concern seeped into her voice. There were many things she couldn't say or show. As close as they were, they were also comfortably distant, and it was a fact that neither of them had ever needed to change. "Is something wrong?"

Shiki looked at her, and Rima started, seeing an unusual amount of vulnerability in his eyes. The expression quickly faded into the usual look of boredom, and he showcased a wide-mouthed yawn. "Nothing really. It just feels like something's different all of the sudden."

"Good different, bad different?" Rima asked light-heartedly.

_Bad different. _Shiki felt a cold shiver sweep through him. It was as if someone was watching him, even though he could feel no one else near to him. When he drifted into sleep, he could feel a presence pacing the corners of his mind.

"Shikiii..." Rima sighed.

"Dunno," Shiki finally replied. "It's nothing. Anyway, about that food..."

* * *

Gray-black clouds rumbled ominously on the horizon, sweeping over a once-clear blue sky with violent force. Their weight crushed the warmth out of the plants and the trees, sending shudder-inducing cold through everything.

Inside of a small stone building, two shadowed figures rested casually across chairs. The only light in the room was the gray illumination of the sky seeping stubbornly through closed blinds and giving a lifeless glow to cruel eyes, one deep blue and the other a madly glowing crimson.

Into nearly-lightless silence, a voice that had been ten years silent spoke, tainted with the light sound of happy malice.

"It's time to continue this twisted game again, isn't it, Asato?"

Asato Ichijou bowed low.

* * *

**Notes: **Yay! I'm glad I was able to finish this chapter! Hopefully my brain will continue to cooperate with me. The flashbacks were pretty fun for me to write, but I just tried to cover the basics, since I'm not sure if I should write in too much of Yuuki's past. I especially had fun with the last bit of flashbacks with Yuuki and Zero. I sort of want to write more with their past when she was young, but I'm not sure if I should. I hope that things aren't too confusing! I promise that I'll try to explain everything soon. **Please Review?**


	12. The Ambiance of Emptiness

/ /** Chapter Eleven:** _The Ambiance of Emptiness _/ /

**Disclaimer/Notes:** Two words. _Chapter 43_. **Finally! **Inspiration in the form of delicious tidbits of Zero. Gack, so my brain has been on the verge of exploding lately for various reasons, some of which include trying to help a drunken neighbor who had crashed himself and his three-year-old son off the side of one of the nearby roads, and me coming down with a random, wretched flu which prevented me from getting on the computer for several days. Anyway, with Yuuki regaining her memories in recent chapters, there should definitely be more opportunities for Zero x Yuuki. Also, though this chapter does have some important plot developments, I have to say that it's mostly much-needed development for the two of them. But I promise that the plot will pick up significantly in future chapters. (_gulps_) And perhaps at the end of this chapter, a little...

* * *

"Zero... what's this?"

Yuuki held a small glinting trinket by a single finger, dangling it half-in and half-out of the canvas sack that Cross had given them. Yuuki had poked her finger on one of its sharp edges while searching the bag. She pulled it up for closer examination, and found a small string with a piece of paper looped over it.

_This is for you, Yuuki; _the note read_._ Then,_ find the letter I left in the bottom of the bag and please read it._

Yuuki dug through loaves of bread that Cross had purchased for them, and shifted boxes of matches aside until she found a small, yellowed envelope in the bottom of the bag. Quickly, she slit the envelope and removed its contents. Her eyes caressed flamboyant cursive writing that raised a spark of familiarity inside of her. She smiled. She had known this handwriting, once upon that forgotten time. Jolting to the stop on the last line, Yuuki tried to take in the implications of what she'd just read.

She lifted the trinket once more; an intricately designed silver bracelet. Glints of sunlight shot off of it and glittered against nearby green leaves.

Zero had remained silent while she read. "Is everything all right, Yuuki?"

She thought so. If it was true... "It's from Cross."

She handed him the letter, and he read through it without pause, handing it back to her a minute later. "That sly old fool," he said.

"Sooo..." Yuuki murmured. "The instructions... they said..."

"Instructions," Zero met her stare with a raised eyebrow. "Like we're putting together a toy model."

Yuuki had forgotten about the presence of his sword, but he withdrew it smoothly and slid one long finger over the sharpened blade, splitting skin and beginning a running rivulet of scarlet. "The bracelet," he said.

His left hand took her wrist, and Yuuki felt an inexplicable shudder run the length of her body. His skin was pleasantly cool, the fingers long as they cupped around her warm flesh. His free hand took the bracelet from her loose grasp and wrapped it around her slender forearm, clasping it smoothly. Yuuki felt small drops of hot scarlet blood fall onto her skin as he lifted the bleeding finger over the now-clasped bracelet. He turned her wrist with one hand and let the final drop of blood fall onto the elaborate design in the center of the piece of jewelry.

Yuuki watched as the liquid wound through the lines and corners.

"Is... that it?" she asked.

The scarlet droplet finished its course around the edges, completely filling the perimeter of the bracelet's center.

Then, in front of her eyes, the blood seemed to sink into the cold metal. Yuuki lifted her finger to the previously chilled surface, and was surprised to find it burning with warmth.

Slowly running her fingers over the warm metal, she felt her cheeks warm with an absurd happiness. She couldn't explain it, but the warmth from the bracelet, which contrasted so starkly with the cool skin of Zero's hands, felt like her link to him. Yuuki brushed a long strand of vivid brown hair behind her ears. It felt somehow odd, and she made a decision, impulsive but practical, its motives buried deeply in her heart.

"Zero," she said softly. "Before we go, I need your help."

"What?" he said.

"Cut my hair, Zero," she said.

* * *

Deep brown locks tinted with the color of red fire fell wispily to the ground. "You don't have to be so careful, Zero..." Yuuki said. "In case you don't know, hair doesn't hurt."

His voice was endearingly serious when he spoke, and laden with a childish focus and determination. "I don't want to mess it up." It was odd how everything reminded her of what used to be. He wasn't cutting it as short as it had been when she had arrived so many years ago; he was carefully severing the locks in red-brown layers straight down her back.

Yuuki felt sort of relieved. This wasn't the Yuuki of the early years that had _been_ forgotten, but she could also no longer be the Yuuki who _had_ forgotten and lived a fragmented life. The falling strands felt like an expression of what she was _now, _the Yuuki who had risen from the brokenness of two completely different remembered lives—the her she chose to be, and not one she was made into.

"Close your eyes," Zero said. "I have to get the front."

Yuuki faithfully closed her eyes, but shuddered suddenly when she felt the touch of his fingertips on her forehead. He lifted the hair away from her eyes, and she heard the whisper of a blade severing the ends. Then again; another brush of his fingertips, and more of her hair slipping down the coat he'd wrapped around her body. His coat. She felt kind of bad that her hair was all over it, actually...

"Don't move," Zero reprimanded when she shivered at his touch again. "Almost done."

Yuuki wondered why those barely-there brushes of his fingers made her feel so tinglingly nervous. She peeked up from under the gently tapering curtain of hair in the front, and examined Zero's expression. He looked completely involved, but she was sure she saw the slightest gentle smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Do you remember when you tried to cut your hair when you were little?" Zero said. "Cross had business in the city, and asked my parents to watch you for a few hours. God only knows why, but you took the scissors and attempted to cut your hair on the back steps with my mom's beloved mirror. I ended up fixing the uneven bushy mess so no one else would see it. You were crying like a baby because you were sure that my mom and dad would be angry at you, and tell Cross."

A name flashed into Yuuki's mind. "I remember," she said softly. "Cross was so terrified when he found what had happened. He even cried. It was hilarious. And...Ichiru," she whispered, as if the name was both familiar and unfamiliar, and somehow forbidden. "Ichiru was the one who saw me first." The reality rushed back to her. "He was your brother."

There was a pause that made Yuuki's stomach sink. She mentally slapped herself.

"Yeah." Zero's voice broke the awkward silence. "He laughed so hard he couldn't stand when he saw you sitting there wide-eyed looking like a mutant dandelion. Which naturally led me back there to see what was going on." His voice still held the reminiscent happiness, but now present was the sad nostalgia of a past that could not be returned to. "When Cross brought you over to visit, Ichiru would sometimes tag along with us, remember?"

Yuuki remembered something else, and wasn't sure if it made the whole situation better or worse. "They never found his body when they looked," she whispered.

Zero's expression froze. "No, they didn't."

And the memories clarified themselves with the sensation of being submerged in cold water. The realization sent a convulsive shudder through her body. "And, that day... I found... you..." All the breath in her body came out in a shuddering exhale. Yagari had lived in that town, once. Touga Yagari, Zero's teacher; only a solder, then, and not the commander of the Royal Guard. He always passed by Cross' house on his way to visit Zero, and Yuuki always watched for him so that she could accompany him to Zero's. On that day, she'd done the same thing, running out to meet him as soon as she saw him passing by. Skipping ahead of Yagari—clueless of the carnage just over the hill—she'd come on the scene first. Hot tears burned her eyes at the memory.

And suddenly, Zero's fingers weren't on her face just to lift the bangs away. The pad of one thumb swiped the unshed tears from her eyes. "Stop it, Yuuki," he said softly. "It's worth nothing to dwell on those things." The gentle whisper of one last slice sent a wispy cloud of red-brown hair falling to the ground. "See? It's all done." He pressed a small mirror into her hands.

He unclasped his coat from around her shoulders, and remained silent. Yuuki shook her head to rid it of clinging severed strands, and looked into the mirror. Her bangs were, at the shortest, halfway down her face, getting longer in a smooth transition downward, where they ended by embracing her chin. The rest of her hair fell in straight layers to just a couple inches past her shoulders. Zero had cut her hair many times back then, even after it had grown back from the atrocious self-snipping she'd given it. He hadn't lost his touch.

"I like it," she said, and felt new. "I like it a lot."

Zero nodded, and Yuuki thought she saw a childish smile of satisfaction, but it disappeared before she could verify its existence. "Good. It'll help to camoflage your identity, as well. It's not as insanely long as it was before, and the style is different."

Yuuki nudged the strands with the bottom of her fingers, and smiled. "We should probably get going, now, shouldn't we?"

"We'll make a short stop in the nearest town," Zero said. "It's market day; we should be able to hide in the crowds."

Yuuki walked over to Lily and stared contemplatively at the horse for a moment. She looked back at Zero. "Aren't you coming?"

Zero looked away for a moment, his expression elsewhere, and finally seemed to come to a decision. "Come here for just a second, Yuuki. I have something for you."

She laughed nervously. "What?"

"Just come over here," he said.

She did. "So..."

Zero unclasped a loose strap from around his waist and lifted it away, holding it out. An elaborately wrought metal sheath dangled from the slender leather strap. The size of the sheath assured that the weapon it housed was no larger than a dagger. "To protect yourself. You need to have a weapon with you," he said softly.

"But where'd you get this?" Yuuki asked.

Zero's eyes fell for a moment. "When I went into my house to get the scissors, I looked for it. It used to be my mother's."

Yuuki backpedaled. "No way! I can't take something that belonged to your parents! It's yours..."

Zero put the strap of the belt into her outstretched hand. "You should have it. You need to be able to protect yourself if there comes a need. That bracelet... isn't a cure-all, Yuuki. There will be a day when I won't be here."

Yuuki ignored that last part. It wasn't something she was ready to address. Slowly, she pulled the dagger from its sheath, and gasped. The blade was engraved with elaborate characters etched carefully into the metal. Every inch of the silver-colored weapon glowed with the reflections of sun on the intricately decorated blade. "What is it?" Yuuki asked, running her fingers along them.

"Ah..." Zero blinked. "It's actually in the ancient language that was spoken before the nobles and their knights even existed. My dad taught it to himself; he was actually pretty interested in history. He made those carvings on the blade."

"What does it say?" Yuuki asked.

"Um... Nothing much," Zero said quickly. "We should get going. The people looking for us will search this place soon. The next town is only about four miles away. Strap that blade around your waist, Yuuki. Use it whenever you're in danger. Even if the danger is from me. Especially if it is."

Yuuki clenched her teeth and prayed that the day he spoke of would never come.

When she climbed onto Lily behind him, she wrapped her arms around his back and held on without him having to tell her.

* * *

The town was a small one, with old houses built around the thriving market in the center. The life in that town spread out from the market. Not only food, but comfort and companionship and the beautiful noise of people interacting came from that place.

On market day, the entire population of the small settlement came outside into the burning sun to refresh themselves with the presence of life. It served Zero's purposes well; even if guards were searching the towns, they would not be able to find Zero and Yuuki in this buzzing crowd of people.

He walked so close beside her that she could feel the cloak he wore brushing against her shoulder. He was too protective; she sighed. Too worried. She should be the one worried about him.

"Are you starving for fresh food, or is it just me?" Zero asked. "Cross left a bag of coins in the sack. What say we blow it on something that's _not ancient and canned_?"

Yuuki laughed. "It sounds good to me."

"Excellent. Let's go, then."

Yuuki caught herself smiling, and wondered if it was all right. So many things that she had remembered; so many things that remained forgotten, and there was no way she could ever completely understand the pain of the boy beside her. Was it really okay for her to be happy right now?

She didn't realize that she'd stopped walking until he stopped, too. "Is something wrong, Yuuki?" Zero asked, worry flitting over his features.

"Yeah! I'm fine." She smiled naturally, honestly, in response, and Yuuki caught a fleeting glimpse of contentment on his face when he saw it.

"That's good."

Yuuki decided that if smiling could make him look like that more often, she would not ever stop smiling. They both came to a halt in front of a fruit stall piled high with ripe produce. The older man behind it gave them a welcoming grin. "And what can I do for you two, today?"

Zero looked at Yuuki, urging her to choose. "Hmm..." she said to the vendor. "I don't actually know! I've never really gone shopping before. What's best?"

The elderly man pointed to a pile of lush, round pink fruits. "These are freshly-picked."

"Can I touch?" Yuuki asked.

The man smiled widely. "Of course, dear," he chuckled.

Yuuki turned to look at Zero. His attention had, for a moment, been drawn somewhere to the left, so he didn't notice her scrutiny.

Suddenly, the light-hearted expression that had been on his face evaporated into something like terror.

"Zero?" Yuuki said, forcing his attention toward her. "What's wrong?"

"Yuuki... please stay here for a bit," he said, and it was near enough to a plea to send fear coursing through her veins.

"Where are you—?"

Zero leaned over Yuuki and passed the man several bills. "This is for whatever fruit she chooses. What's left is for you. Make sure she doesn't wander. Please."

"Zero—!"

He turned and disappeared into the rushing crowd, and Yuuki lost sight of him.

The man looked at her apologetically, and picked out about six of the pink fruits. "These are the best ones, dear. And I'll give you two of these others if you want. Your boyfriend gave me far too much money. It's a pleasure to give these to a kind girl like yourself. Pick whichever ones you want."

Yuuki wasn't sure which to stutter about first; the fact that he was offering her far too much fruit for the money Zero had paid, or the fact that he had just called Zero her boyfriend. "I—!"

Yuuki felt a vise-like grip on her shoulder, and spun around. A tall woman stared down with a slow, gentle smile. "Hello. I'm a friend of Zero's. I would quite like to speak with you, Yuuki."

The woman's voice, lulling and beautiful, nonetheless sent shudders rolling through Yuuki's body. "Zero asked me to stay here," she said defiantly.

"Of course," the woman said, turning around. Yuuki was entranced by the woman's movements, purposeful and graceful, not unlike the loping stride of a predator. "I'll take that as an indication that you don't want to know how to save Zero."

Yuuki felt her heart skip a beat. She meant to say something, but her lips would not move. _Did this woman really...?_

"Haven't you noticed the way he's acting around you lately? More open with his feelings, with his actions? It's not like him; you know that. Why do you think he's letting his guard down around you?"

Yuuki felt like desperately asking the woman to stop speaking, because she somehow knew what the answer would be.

"It's because it _doesn't matter_," the woman continued inevitably. "He knows better than anyone that he's dying." The woman paused, savoring the painful silence, and spoke right before Yuuki could bring herself to do the same. "If you want to find out how to save Zero, you'll follow behind me right now. If not, it's on your head, little one."

Watching the woman's departing back, Yuuki made her decision.

* * *

Zero raced through the crowds, desperately trying to catch a glimpse of the face that had been so clear only seconds ago. Every time he got close, it disappeared, and every time he was far away, he spotted the familiar head, visible in the crowds, and pursued it. Only when his feet stopped beating easily giving dust and clattered against stone did the person he followed finally stop.

Stone archways that had no purpose grew from cobblestone ground, and the person he had followed stepped absent-mindedly through one without turning around.

Barely comprehensible for lack of breath, Zero gasped desperately, "Ichiru." _Willing the figure with the familiar eyes and face and hair to finally turn around. Willing him and so desperately _needing_ him to prove that he _was_ someone else, but at the same time needing him to be Ichiru; his brother, his twin._

The boy turned around, and Zero stared into a sharper, twisted reflection of his own face.

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Zero?"

Zero fell to his knees, gasping for breath. "What's going on? What are you doing here?" he demanded.

A smile lit across Ichiru's face, but the most terrifying part of it all was that it wasn't happy, and it wasn't sad. It was resigned and inevitable.

"You're too late," Ichiru said.

His meaning sank into the pit of Zero's stomach, and a single word passed his lips with reverent fear.

"_Yuuki._"

* * *

The woman's footsteps finally stopped in front of an old building, stone-hewn and once-lived in. Time had left it neglected and cold. It was into this house that the mysterious woman walked, and Yuuki followed.

The strange, silver-haired stranger had carefully avoided any questions, urging Yuuki to wait until they arrived, so as soon as the woman stopped, Yuuki stood in the doorway and defiantly repeated herself. "So _how_ do you know how to help Zero?"

The woman smiled cruelly but beautifully, like sunlight glowing on silver gunmetal. "Didn't I mention it?"

The pause was intentional; dangling food over the mouths of starving animals.

"...It's because I'm the one who changed him."

The woman was faster that Yuuki could have anticipated, and long, cold fingers wrapped around Yuuki's arm, pulling her into the darkened doorway of the shack. Before she could process what was happening, restraints were wrapped around her wrists and ankles, and a cold incision cut through the fear and made her scream. She felt the drip, drip, drip of warm blood trailing down her neck, and in the light, she saw a small vial dangling from the woman's fingers. It was full of something vividly and intoxicatingly red, while tinted at the same time with an ethereal, silvery glow.

"Do you know what this is, Yuuki, dear?" said Shizuka Hiou. "This is my means to Kaname Kuran's end, and you will bring it about."

Tears filled and rolled down from Yuuki's wide eyes. _No, no, no, no, no..._

She prayed for Kaname.

He did not come.

She prayed for Zero.

He did not come.

Silver-scarlet liquid was lathed onto the already healing wound on her neck, and everything went mercifully, terrifyingly...

_Blank._

* * *

**Notes: **Gack! Please forgive me for the long update time. I hope that things will be more regular from now on, since those odd sorts of life-emergencies don't happen on a regular basis. This chapter was a challenge to me, especially with bringing in Ichiru and Shizuka. I had a great time with both of them, and hope to flesh out their motives, as well as **what the heck just happened in the final scene **as soon as possible. I'd absolutely love any comments. **_Please Review?_**


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